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THE ROMANCE OF 
MODERN MECHANISM 




A MECHANICAL SCULPTOR 
The lower illustration shows the Wen/el SculntnrJncr Ar u- 

stone ranged one on each side of a rnodel^^ Thf ^ ^^f .^^"^ ^^ work on two blocks of 
taneously from one original rru^ un^^r '.U . ^^chine can make four copies simul- 
by the automatic sculptor * ^^^' illustration shows the quality of work done 



t 



THE ROMANCE OF 
ODERN MECHANISM 

WITH INTERESTING DESCRIPTIONS IN NON- 
TECHNICAL LANGUAGE OF WONDERFUL 
MACHINERY AND MECHANICAL DEVICES 
AND MARVELLOUSLY DELICATE SCIENTIFIC 
INSTRUMENTS, <Src., &c. 



BY 

ARCHIBALD WILLIAMS 

author of 
"the romance of modern exploration" 

<Sr'C., dT'C. 



WITH THIRTY ILLUSTRATIONS 



PHILADELPHIA 
B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 

LONDON: SEELEY & CO. Limited 
1906 



'^ 



INTRODUCTION 

IN the beginning a man depended for his subsistence 
entirely upon his own efforts, or upon those of his 
immediate relations and friends. Life was very simple 
in those days: luxury being unknown, and necessity the 
factor which guided man'^s actions at every turn. With 
infinite labour he ground a flint till it assumed the shape 
of a rough arrow-head, to be attached to a reed and shot 
into the heart of some wild beast as soon as he had ap- 
proached close enough to be certain of his quarry. The 
meat thus obtained he seasoned with such roots and herbs 
as nature provided — a poor and scanty choice. Presently 
he discovered that certain grains supported life much 
better than roots, and he became an agriculturist. But 
the grain must be ground ; so he invented a simple mill 
— a small stone worked by hand over a large one ; 
and when this method proved too tedious he so shaped 
the stones'* surfaces that they touched at all points, 
and added handles by which the upper stone could be 
revolved. 

With the discovery of bronze, and, many centuries later, 
of iron, his workshop ecjuipment rapidly improved. lie 
became an expert boat- and house-builder, and multiplied 
weapons of offence and defence. Gradually separate 



INTRODUCTION 

crafts arose. One man no longer depended on his indi- 
vidual efforts, but was content to barter his own work for 
the products of another man'^s labour, because it became 
evident that specialisation promoted excellence of manu- 
facture. 

A second great step in advance was the employment of 
machinery, which, when once fashioned by hand, saved an 
enormous amount of time and trouble — the pump, the 
blowing bellows, the spinning-wheel, the loom. But all 
had to be operated by human effort, sometimes replaced 
by animal power. 

With the advent of the steam-engine all industry 
bounded forward again. First harnessed by Watt, Giant 
Steam has become a commercial and political power. 
Everywhere, in mill and factory, locomotive, ship, it has 
increased the products which lend ease and comfort to 
modern life; is the great ally of invention, and the 
ultimate agent for transporting men and material from 
one point on the earth's surface to another. 

Try as we may, we cannot escape from our environment 
of mechanism, unless we are content to revert to the loin- 
cloth and spear of the savage. Society has become so 
complicated that the utmost efforts of an individual are, 
after all, confined to a very narrow groove. The days of 
the Jack-of-all-trades are over. Success in life, even bare 
subsistence, depends on the concentration of one'^s faculties 
upon a very limited daily routine. "Let the cobbler stick 
to his lasf is a maxim which carries an ever-increasing 
force. 

The better to realise how dependent we are on the 
mechanisms controlled by the thousand and one classes 



INTRODUCTION 

of workmen, let us consider the surroundings, posses- 
sions, and movements of the average, well-to-do business 
man. 

At seven o''clock he wakes, and instinctively feels 
beneath his pillow for his watch, a most marvel- 
lous assemblage of delicate parts shaped by wonderful 
machinery. Before stepping into his bath he must turn 
a tap, itself a triumph of mechanical skill. The razor he 
shaves with, the mirror which helps him in the operation, 
the very brush and soap, all are machine-made. With 
his clothes he adds to the burden of his indebtedness to 
mechanism. The power-loom span the linen for his shirts, 
the cloth for his outer garments. Shirts and collars are 
glossy from the treatment of the steam laundry, where 
machinery is rampant. His boots, kept shapely by 
machine-made lasts, should remind him that mechanical 
devices have played a large part in their manufacture, 
very possibly the human hand has scarcely had a single 
duty to perform. 

He goes downstairs, and presses an electric button. 
Mechanism again. While waiting for his breakfast his 
eye roves carelessly over the knives, spoons, forks, table, 
tablecloth, wall-paper, engravings, carpet, cruet-stand — 
all machine-made in a larger or less degree. The very 
coals blazing in the grate were won by machinery ; the 
marble of the mantelpiece was shaped and polished by 
machinery ; also the fire-irons, the chairs, the hissing 
kettle. Machinery stares at him from the loaf on its 
machine-made board. Machines prepared the land, sowed, 
harvested, threshed, ground, and probably otherwise pre- 
pared the grain for baking. Machines ground his salt. 



INTRODUCTION 

his coffee. Machinery aided the capture of the tempting 
sole ; helped to cure the rasher of bacon ; shaped the 
dishes, the plates, the coffee-pot. 

Whirr-r-r! The motor-car is at the door, throbbing 
with the impulses of its concealed machinery. Our friend 
therefore puts on his machine-made gloves and hat and 
sallies forth. That wonderful motor, the product of the 
most up-to-date, scientific, and mechanical appliances, bears 
him swiftly over roads paved with machine-crushed stone 
and flattened out by a steam-roller. A book might be 
reserved to the motor alone ; but we must refrain, for a 
few minutes'* travel has brought the horseless carriage to 
the railway station. Mr. Smith, being the holder of a 
season ticket, does not trouble the clerk who is stamping 
pasteboards with a most ingenious contrivance for auto- 
matically impressing dates and numbers on them. He 
strolls out on the platform and buys the morning paper, 
which, a few hours before, was being battered about by 
one of the most wonderful machines that ever was devised 
by the brain of man. Mr. Smith doesn*'t bother his 
head with thoughts of the printing-press. Its products 
are all round him, in timetables and advertisements. 
Nor does he ponder upon the giant machinery which 
crushed steel ingots into the gleaming rails that stretch 
into the far distance ; nor upon the marvellous inter- 
locking mechanism of the signal-box at the platform - 
end ; nor upon the electric wires thrumming overhead. 
No ! he had seen all these things a thousand times before, 
and probably feels little of the romance which lies so 
thickly upon them. 

A whistle blows. The "local"' is approaching, with 



b 



INTRODUCTION 



its majestic locomotive — a very orgy of mechanism — its 
automatic brakes, its thousand parts all shaped by mechani- 
cal devices, — steam saws, planes, lathes, drills, hammers, 
presses. In obedience to a little lever the huge mass 
comes quickly to rest ; the steam pump on the engine 
commences to gasp ; a minute later another lever moves, 
and Mr. Smith is fairly on his way to business. 

Arrived at the metropolis, he presses electricity into his 
service, either on an electric tram or on a subterranean 
train. In the latter case he uses an electric lift, which 
lowers him into the bowels of the earth, to pass him on 
to the current-propelled cars, driven by power generated 
in far-away stations. 

His office is stamped all over with the seal of mechan- 
ism. In the lobby are girls hammering on marvellous 
typewriters ; on his desk rests a telephone, connected 
through wires and most elaborately equipped exchanges 
with all parts of the country. To get at his private and 
valuable papers Mr. Smith must have recourse to his 
bunch of keys, which, with their corresponding locks, 
represent ingenuity of a high degree. All day long he 
is in the grasp of mechanism ; not even at lunch time 
can he escape it, for the food set before him at the 
restaurant has been cooked by the aid of special kitchen 
machinery. 

And when the evening draws on Mr. Smith touches a 
switch to turn his darkness into light, wrung through 
many wonderful processes from the stored illumination of 
coal. 

Were we to trace the daily round of the clerk, artisan, 
scientist, engineer, or manufacturer, we should be brought 



INTRODUCTION 

J^to contact with a thousand other mechanical appliances. 
Space forbids such a tour of inspection; but in the 
following pages we may rove here and there through the 
workshops of the world, gleaning what seems to be of 
special interest to the general public, and weaving round 
It, with a machine-made pen, some of the romance which 
IS apt to be lost sight of by the most marvellous of all 
creations — Man. 



AUTHOR'S NOTE 

The author desires to express his indebtedness to the 
following gentlemen for the kind help they have afforded 
him in connection with the gathering of materials for the 
letterpress and illustration of this book : — 

The proprietors of Cassier's Magazine^ The Magazine 
of Commerce^ The WorWs WorJc^ The Motor Boat ; The 
Rexer Automatic Machine Gun Co. ; The Diesel Oil 
Engine Co. ; The Cambridge Scientific Instrument Co. ; 
The Marconi Wireless Telegraphy Co. ; The Temperley 
Transporter Co. ; Messrs. de Dion, Bouton and Co. ; Messrs. 
Merryweather and Sons ; Mr. A. Crosby Lockwood ; Mr. 
Dan Albone; Mr. J. B. Diplock ; Mr. W. H. Oatway; 
The National Cash Register Co. ; The Wenzel Sculpturing 
Machine Co. ; Mr. E. W. Gaz ; Sir W. G. Armstrong, 
Whitworth and Co. ; The International Harvester Co. ; 
and Messrs. Gwynne and Co. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER IX PAGE 

THE MOTOR CYCLE . . . , . . 175 

CHAPTER X 

riRE ENGINES . . . . . . 185 

CHAPTER XI 

riRE-ALARMS AND AUTOMATIC FIRE EXTINGUISHERS . . .191 

CHAPTER XII 

THE MACHINERY OF A SHIP — THE REVERSING ENGINE — MARINE 
ENGINE SPEED GOVERNORS — THE STEERING ENGINE — BLOWING 
AND VENTILATING APPARATUS — PUMPS — FEED HEATERS — FEED- 
WATER FILTERS — DISTILLERS — REFRIGERATORS — THE SEARCH- 
LIGHT — WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY INSTRUMENTS — SAFETY DEVICES — 
THE TRANSMISSION OF POWER ON A SHIP . ... 203 



CHAPTER XIII 



236 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE MECHANISM OF DIVING . . ... 240 

CHAPTER XV 

APPARATUS FOR RAISING SUNKEN SHIPS AND TREASURE . . 248 

CHAPTER XVI 

THE HANDLING OF GRAIN — THE ELEVATOR — THE SUCTION PNEUMATIC 
GRAIN-LIFTER — THE PNEUMATIC^^LAST GRAIN-LIFTER — THE COM- 
BINED SYSTEM . . . ... 252 

CHAPTER XVII 

MECHANICAL TRANSPORTERS AND CONVEYERS— ROPEWAYS— CABLE- 
WAYS — I'ELPHER AGE— COALING WARSHIPS AT SEA . . . 258 

CHAPTER XVIII 

AUTOMATIC WEIGHERS . . . ... 274 

CHAPTER XIX 

TRANSPORTER BRIDGES . . . ... 277 



XIV 



1 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XX PAGE 

BOAT- AND SHIP-RAISING LIFTS . . ... 983 



CHAPTER XXI 

A SELF-MOVING STAIRCASE 



^95 



CHAPTER XXn 

PNEUMATIC MAIL TUBES . . . . . 301 

CHAPTER XXni 

AN ELECTRIC POSTAL SYSTEM . . . . . 315 

CHAPTER XXIV 

AGRICULTUHAL MACHINERY — PLOUGHS — DRILLS AND SEEDERS — 
REAPING MACHINES — THRESHING MACHINES — PETROL-DRIVEN 
FIELD MACHINERY — ELECTRICAL FARMING MACHINERY . .318 

CHAPTER XXV 

DAIRY MACHINERY — MILKING MACHINES — CREAM SEPARATORS— A 

MACHINE FOR DRYING MILK . . ... 330 

CHAPTER XXVI 

SCULPTURING MACHINES . . ... 335 

CHAPTER XXVII 

AN AUTOMATIC RIFLE-^A BALL-BEARING RIFLE . . . 345 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



A CARVING MACHINE 

MEASURING MACHINES . 

A CASH REGISTER 

LATHE TURNING A BIG GUN 

LATHE FOR BORING 16-INCH GUN . 

A STEAM HAMMER 

A HUGE HYDRAULIC PRESS 

A PEDRAIL TRACTION ENGINE 

GREAT GAS ENGINE FOR BLAST FURNACES 

MOTOR-CAR AND 3IOTOR-BOAT 

A MOTOGODILLE 

A MOTOR LAWN MOWER 

UP-TO-DATE FIRE BRIGADE ENGINES 

HOISTING A HEAVY GUN ON BOARD MAN-OF 

FIXING A RAM TO A BATTLESHIP 

A TRIPOD CRANE 

MODERN DIVING APPARATUS 

COALING AT SEA 

A TRANSPORTER BRIDGE AT BIZERTA 

A CANAL LIFT 

AN AMERICAN CUTTER AND BINDER 

A MOTOR PLOUGH 

GIRL CARVING BY MACHINERY 

THE REXER GUN 

xvi 



•WAR 



/ 



PAGE 

Frontispiece ^ 
34 

45' 
38' 

72- 



108 

198 

151 

156 

182 

186 

204 

228 

237 

245 

271 

278 

289 

322 

327 

343 

352 



THE EOMANCE OF 
MODEEN MECHANISM 

CHAPTER I 
. DELICATE INSTRUMENTS 

WATCHES AND CHRONOMETERS — THE MICROTOME — THE DIVIDING 
ENGINE MEASURING MACHINES 

OWING to the universal use of watches, resulting 
from their cheapness, the possessor of a pocket 
timepiece soon ceases to take a pride in the 
delicate mechanism which at first added an inch or two 
to his stature. At night it is wound up mechanically, 
and thrust under the pillow, to be safe from imaginary 
burglars and handy when the morning comes. The 
awakened sleeper feels small gratitude to his faithful 
little servant, which all night long has been beating out 
the seconds so that its master may know just where he 
is with regard to " the enemy *" on the morrow. At last 
a hand is slipped under the feather-bag, and the watch is 
dragged from its snug hiding-place. " Bother it," says 
the sleepy owner, " half-past eight; ought to have been up 
an hour ago ! "*'' and out he tumbles. Dressing concluded, 
the watch passes to its day quarters in a darksome waist- 
B 17 



MODERN MECHANISM 

coat pocket, to be hauled out many times for its opinion 
to be taken. 

The real usefulness of a watch is best learnt by being 
without one for a day or two. There are plenty of clocks 
about, but not always in sight ; and one gradually experi- 
ences a mild irritation at having to step round the corner 
to find out what the hands are doing. 

A truly wonderful piece of machinery is a watch — even 
a cheap one. An expensive, high-class article is worthy 
of our admiration and respect. Here is one that has 
been in constant use for fifty years. Twice a second its 
little balance-wheel revolves on its jewelled bearings. 
Allowing a few days for repairs, we find by calculation 
that the watch has made no less than three thousand 
million movements in the half-century! And still it 
goes ticking on, ready to do another fifty years'* work. 
How beautifully tempered must be the springs and the 
steel faces which are constantly rubbing against jewel or 
metal ! How perfectly cut the teeth which have engaged 
one another times innumerable without showing appreci- 
able wear ! 

The chief value of a good watch lies in its accuracy as 
a time-keeper. It is, of course, easy to correct it by 
standard clocks in the railway stations or public build- 
ings; but one may forget to do this, and in a week or 
two a loss of a few minutes may lead to one missing a 
train, or being late for an important engagement. Happy, 
therefore, is the man who, having set his watch to "London 
time,*" can rely on its not varying from accuracy a minute 
in a week — a feat achieved by many watches. 

The old-fashioned watch was a bulky affair, protected 

iS 



DELICATE INSTRUMENTS 

by an outer case of ample proportions. From year to 
year the size has gradually diminished, until we can now 
purchase a reliable article no thicker than a five-shilling 
piece, which will not offend the most fastidious dandy by 
disarranging the fit of his clothes. Into the space of a 
small fraction of an inch is crowded all the usual 
mechanism, reduced to the utmost fineness. Watches have 
even been constructed small enough to form part of a ring 
or earring, without losing their time-keeping properties. 

For practical purposes, however, it is advantageous to 
have a timepiece of as large a size as may be convenient, 
since the difficulties of adjustment and repair increase 
with decreasing proportions. The ship's chronometer, 
therefore, though of watch construction, is a big affair 
as compared with the pocket timepiece ; for above all 
things it must be accurate. 

The need for this arises from the fact that nautical 
reckonings made by the observation of the heavenly bodies 
include an element of time. We will suppose a vessel to 
be at sea out of sight of land. The captain, by referring 
to the dial of the " mechanical log,""* towed astern, can 
reckon pretty accurately how far the vessel has travelled 
since it left port ; but owing to winds and currents he is 
not certain of the position on the globe*'s surface at which 
his ship has arrived. To locate this exactly he must 
learn (a) his longitude, ie, distance E. or W. of Green- 
wich, (6) his latitude, Le. distance N. or S. of the Equator. 
Therefore, when noon approaches, his chronometers and 
sextant are got out, and at the moment when the sun 
crosses the meridian the time is taken. If this moment 
happens to coincide with four o'clock on the chronometers 

19 



MODERN MECHANISM 

he is as far west of Greenwich as is represented by four 
twenty-fourths of the 360° into which the earth's circum- 
ference is divided; that is, he is in longitude 60° W. The 
sextant gives him the angle made by a line drawn to the 
sun with another drawn to the horizon, ^nd from that he 
calculates his latitude. Then he adjourns to the chart- 
room, where, by finding the point at which the lines of 
longitude and latitude intersect, he establishes his exact 
position also. 

When the ship leaves England the chronometer is set 
by Greenwich time, and is never touched afterwards except 
to be wound once a day. In order that any error may be 
reduced to a minimum a merchant ship carries at least 
two chronometers, a man-of-war at least three, and a 
surveying vessel as many as a dozen. The average read- 
ing of the chronometers is taken to work by. 

Taking the case of a single chronometer, it has often to 
be relied on for months at a time, and during that period 
has probably to encounter many changes of temperature. 
If it gains or loses from day to day, and that consistently^ 
it may still be accounted reliable, as the amount of error 
will be allowed for in all calculations. But should it gain 
one day and lose another, the accumulated errors would, 
on a voyage of several months, become so considerable as 
to imperil seriously the safety of the vessel if navigating 
dangerous waters. 

As long ago as 1714 the English Government recog- 
nised the importance of a really reliable chronometer, and 
in that year passed an Act offering rewards of £10,000, 
£15,000, and £20,000 to anybody who should produce a 
chronometer that would fix longitude within sixty, forty, 

20 



DELICATE INSTRUMENTS 

and thirty miles respectively of accuracy. John Harrison, 
the son of a Yorkshire carpenter, who had already in- 
vented the ingenious " gridiron pendulum "*' for compen- 
sating clocks, took up the challenge. By 1761 he had 
made a chronometer of so perfect a nature that during a 
voyage to Jamaica that year, and back the next, it lost 
only 1 min. 54| sec. As this would enable a captain to 
find his longitude within eighteen miles in the latitude of 
Greenwich, Harrison claimed, and ultimately received, 
the maximum reward. 

It was not till nearly a century later that Thomas 
Earnshaw produced the "compensation balance,"'' now 
generally used on chronometers and high-class watches. 
In cheap watches the balance is usually a little three- 
spoked wheel, which at every tick revolves part of a turn 
and then flies back again. This will not suffice for very 
accurate work, because the " moment of inertia "'' varies 
at different temperatures. To explain this term let us 
suppose that a man has a pound of metal to make into 
a wheel. If the wheel be of small diameter, you will be 
able to turn it first one way and then the other on its axle 
(juite easily. But should it be melted down and remade 
into a wheel of four times the diameter, with the same 
amount of metal as before in the rim, the difficulty of 
suddenly reversing its motion will be much increased. 
The weight is the same, but the speed of the rim, and 
consequently its momentum, is greater. It is evident from 
this that, if a wheel of certain size be driven by a spring 
of constant strength, its oscillations will be equal in time ; 
but if a rise of temperature should lengthen the spokes 
the speed would fall, because the spring would have more 

21 



MODERN MECHANISM 

work to do ; and, conversely, with a fall of temperature 
the speed would rise. Earnshaw's problem was to con- 
struct a balance wheel that should be able to keep its 
" moment of inertia *" constant under all circumstances. 
He therefore used only two spokes to his wheel, and to 
the outer extremity of each attached an almost complete 
semicircle of rim, one end being attached to the spoke, 
the other all but meeting the other spoke. The rim- 
pieces were built up of an outer strip of brass, and an 
inner strip of steel welded together. Brass expands more 
rapidly than steel, with the result that a bar compounded 
of these two metals would, when heated, bend towards 
the hollow side. To the rim-pieces were attached sliding 
weights, adjustable to the position found by experiment to 
give the best results. 

We can now follow the action of the balance wheel. 
It runs perfectly correctly at, say, a temperature of 
60°. Hold it over a candle. The spokes lengthen, and 
carry the rim-pieces outwards at their fixed ends; but, 
as the pieces themselves bend inwards at their free ends, 
the balance is restored. If the balance were placed in 
a refrigerating machine, the spokes w^ould shorten, but the 
rim-pieces would bend outwards. 

As a matter of fact, the " moment of inertia ^'^ cannot 
be kept quite constant by this method, because the varia- 
tion of expansion is more rapid in cold than in heat ; so 
that, though a balance might be quite reliable between 
60° and 100% it would fail between 30° and 60°. So the 
makers fit their balances with what is called a secondary 
compensation, the effect of which is to act more quickly 
in high than in low temperatures. This could not well 

22 



4 



DELICATE INSTRUMENTS 

be explained without diagrams, so a mere mention must 
suffice. 

Another detail of chronometer making which requires 
very careful treatment is the method of transmitting 
power from the main spring to the works. As the spring 
uncoils, its power must decrease, and this loss must be 
counterbalanced somehow. This is managed by using the 
"drum and fusee'** action, which may be seen in some 
clocks and in many old watches. The drum is cylindrical, 
and contains the spring. The fusee is a tapering shaft, in 
which a spiral groove has been cut from end to end. 
A very fine chain connects the two parts. The key is 
applied to the fusee, and the chain is wound off the drum 
on to the larger end of the fusee first. By the time that 
the spring has been fully wound, the chain has reached the 
fusee's smaller extremity. If the fusee has been turned 
to the correct taper, the driving power of the spring will 
remain constant as it unwinds, for it gets least leverage 
over the fusee when it is strongest, and most when it 
is weakest, the intermediate stages being properly pro- 
portioned. To test this, a weighted lever is attached to 
the key spindle, with the weight so adjusted that the 
fully wound spring has just sufficient power to lift it over 
the topmost point of a revolution. It is then allowed 
a second turn, but if the weight now proves excessive 
something must be wrong, and the fusee needs its diameter 
reducing at that point. So the test goes on from turn to 
turn, and alterations are made until every revolution is 
managed with exactly the same ease. 

The complete chronometer is sent to Greenwich obser- 
vatory to be tested against the Standard Clock, which, at 

23 



MODERN MECHANISM 

10 a.m., flashes the hour to other clocks all over Great 
Britain. In a special room set apart for the purpose are 
hundreds of instruments, some hanging up, others lying 
flat. Assistants make their rounds, noting the erroi-s of 
each. The temperature test is then applied in special 
ovens, and finally the article goes back to the maker with 
a certificate setting forth its performances under different 
conditions. If the error has been consistent the instru- 
ment is sold, the buyer being informed exactly what to 
allow for each day's error. At the end of the voyage he 
brings his chronometer to be tested again, and, if neces,sary, 
put right. 

Here are the actual variations of a chronometer during 
a nineteen-day test, before being used : — 



Gain in tenths 
I^ay- of seconds. 


Gain in tentks 
Day. of seconds. 


1st . 


• h 


nth . 


. 4 


2nd . 


3 


12th . 


. 3 


3rd . 


4 


13th . 


. 3 


4th . 


4 


14th . 


4 


5th . 


' ! 


15th . 


5 


6th . 


o 


I6th . 


2 


7th . 





17th . 


3 


8th . 





18th . 


5 


9th . 


41 


19th . 


1 


10th . 


3 







An average gain of just over one quarter of a second 
per diem! Quite extraordinary feats of time-keeping 
have been recorded of chronometers on long voyages. 
Thus a chronometer which had been to Australia via the 
Cape and back via the Red Sea was only fifteen seconds 
"out''; and the Encychpcedia Britannica quotes the 

24 



DELICATE INSTRUMENTS 

performance of the three instruments of s.s. Orellana^ 
which between them accumulated an error of but 2*3 
seconds during a sixty-three-day trip. 

An instrument which will cut a blood corpuscle into 
several parts — that's the Microtome, the " small-cutter,"" 
as the name implies. 

For the examination of animal tissues it is necessary 
that they should be sliced very fine before they are sub- 
jected to the microscope. Perhaps a tiny muscle is being 
investigated and cross sections of it are needed. Well, 
one cannot pick up the muscle and cut slices off it as 
you would off a German sausage. To begin with, it is 
difficult even to pick the object up ; and even if pieces 
one-hundredth of an inch long were detached they would 
still be far too large for examination. 

So, as is usually the case when our unaided powers prove 
unequal to a task, we have recourse to a machine. There 
are several types of microtomes, each preferable for certain 
purposes. But as in ordinary laboratory work the Cam- 
bridge Rocking Microtome is used, let us give our special 
attention to this particular instrument. It is mounted 
on a strong cast-iron bed, a foot or so in length and four 
to five inches wide. Towards one end rise a couple of 
supports terminating in knife-edges, which carry a cross- 
bar, itself provided with knife-edges top and bottom, 
those on the top supporting a second transverse bar. 
Both bars have a long leg at right angles, giving them 
the appearance of two large T"s superimposed one on the 
other; but the top T is converted into a cross by a fourth 
member — a sliding tube which projects forward towards a 
frame in which is clamped a razor, edge upwards. 

as 



MODERN MECHANISM 

The tail of the lower T terminates in a circular disc, 
pierced with a hole to accommodate the end of a vertical 
screw, which has a large circular head with milled edges. 
The upper T is rocked up and down by a cord and spring, 
the handle actuating the cord also shifting on the milled 
screw-head a very small distance every time it is rocked 
backwards and forwards. As the screw turns, it gradu- 
ally raises the tail of the lower member, and by giving 
its cross-bar a tilt brings the tube of the upper member 
appreciably nearer the razor. The amount of twist given 
to the screw at each stroke can be easily regulated by a 
small catch. 

When the microscopist wishes to cut sections he first 
mounts his object in a lump of hard paraffin wax, coated 
with softer wax. The whole is stuck on to the face of 
the tube, so as to be just clear of the razor. 

The operator then seizes the handle and works it 
rapidly until the first slice is detached by the razor. 
Successive slices are stuck together by their soft edges so 
as to form a continuous ribbon of wax, which can be 
picked up easily and laid on a glass slide. The slide is 
then warmed to melt the paraffin, which is dissolved away 
by alcohol, leaving the atoms of tissue untouched. These, 
after being stained with some suitable medium, are ready 
for the microscope. 

A skilful user can, under favourable conditions, cut 
slices on^ twenty-Jive thousandth of an inch thick. To 
gather some idea of what this means we will imagine that 
a cucumber one foot long and one and a-half inches in 
diameter is passed through this wonderful guillotine. It 
would require no less than 700 dinner-plates nin€ inches 

26 



DELICATE INSTRUMENTS 

across to spread the pieces on ! If the slices were one- 
eighth of an inch thick, the cucumber, to keep a pro- 
portionate total size, would be 260 feet long. After 
considering these figures we shall lose some of the respect 
we hitherto felt for the men who cut the ham to put 
inside luncheon-bar sandwiches. 

In the preceding pages frequent reference has been 
made to index screws, exactly graduated to a convenient 
number of divisions. When such screws have to be manu- 
factured in quantities it would be far too expensive 
a matter to measure each one separately. Therefore 
machinery, itself very carefully graduated, is used to 
enable a workman to transfer measurements to a disc of 
metal. 

If the index-circle of an astronomical telescope — to 
take an instance — has to be divided, it is centred on a 
large horizontal disc, the circumference of which has been 
indented with a large number of teeth. A worm-screw 
engages these teeth tangentially {Le, at right angles to a 
line drawn from the centre of the plate to the point of 
engagement). On the shaft of the screw is a ratchet 
pinion, in principle the same as the bicycle free-wheel, 
which, when turned one way, also twists the screw, but 
has no effect on it when turned the other way. Stops 
are put on the screw, so that it shall rotate the large 
disc only the distance required between any two gradua- 
tions. The divisions are scribed on the index-circle by a 
knife attached to a carriage over and parallel to the disc. 
The Dividing Engine used for the graduation of certain 
astronomical instruments probably constitutes the most 
perfect machine ever made. In an address to the Institu- 

a; 



MODERN MECHANISM 

tion of Mechanical Engineers,* the President, Mr. William 
Henry Maw, used the following words: " The most recently 
constructed machine of the kind of which I am aware — 
namely, one made by Messrs. Warner and Swasey, of 
Cleveland, U.S.A. — is capable of automatically cutting 
the graduations of a circle with an error in position not 
exceeding one second of arc. (A second of an arc is 
approximately the angle subtended by a halfpenny at a 
distance of three miles.) This means that on a 20-inch 
circle the eiTor in position of any one graduation shall 
not exceed .t^t^q inch. Now, the finest line which would 
be of any service for reading purposes on such a circle 
would probably have a width equal to quite ten seconds 
of arc ; and it follows that the minute V-shaped cut form- 
ing this line must be so absolutely symmetrical with its 
centre line throughout its length, that the position of this 
centre may be determined within the limit of error just 
stated by observations of its edges, made by aid of the 
reading micrometer and microscope. I may say that after 
the machine just mentioned had been made, it took over 
a year's hard work to reduce the maximum error in its 
graduations from one and a-half to one second of arc.**' 

The same address contains a reference to the grcat 
Yerkes telescope, which though irrelevant to our present 
chapter, affords so interesting an example of modern me- 
chanical perfection that it deserves parenthetic mention. 

The diameter of a star of the seventh magnitude as it 
appears in the focus of this huge telescope is j^^ inch. 
The spiders' webs stretched across the object glass are 

* April 19th, 1901. 
28 



% 



DELICATE INSTRUMENTS 

about —^ inch in diameter. " The problem thus is,"" 
says Mr. Maw, " to move this twenty-two ton mass (the 
telescope) with such steadiness in opposition to the motion 
of the earth, that a star disc ^7^ inch in diameter can 
be kept threaded, as it were, upon a spider's web ^^^^ inch 
in diameter, carried at a radius of thirty-two feet from 
the centre of motion. I think that you v/ill agree that 
this is a problem in mechanical engineering demanding 
no slight skill to solve ; but it has been solved, and with 
the most satisfactory results.**' The motions are controlled 
electrically; and respecting them Professor Barnard, one 
of the chief observers with this telescope, some time ago 
wrote as follows : " It is astonishing to see with what 
perfect instantaneousness the clock takes up the tube. 
The electric slow motions are controlled from the eye 
end. So exact are they that a star can be brought from 
the edge of the field and stopped instantaneously behind 
the micrometer wire.'' 

Dividing engines are used for ruling parallel lines on 
glass and metal, to aid in the measurements of micro- 
scopical objects or the wave-lengths of light. A diffraction 
gratings used for measuring the latter, has the lines so 
close together that they would be visible only under a 
powerful microscope. Glass being too brittle, a special 
alloy of so-called speculum metal is fashioned into a highly 
polished plate, and this is placed in the machine. A deli- 
cate screw aiTangement gradually feeds the plate forwards 
under the diamond point, which is automatically di'awn 
across the plate between every two movements. Professor 
H. A. Rowlands has constructed a parallel dividing engine 

which has ruled as many as 120,000 lines to the inch. 

29 



MODERN MECHANISM 

To get a conception of these figures we must once again 
resort to comparison. Let us therefore take a furrow as 
a line, and imagine a ploughman going up and down a 
field 120,000 times. If each fuiTow be eight inches wide, 
the field would require a breadth of nearly fourteen miles 
to accommodate all the furrows ! Again, supposing that 
a plate six inches square were being ruled, the lines placed 
end to end would extend for seventy miles ! 

Professor Rowlands' machine does the finest work of 
this kind. Another very perfect instrument has been 
built by Lord Blythswood, and as some particulars of it 
have been kindly supplied, they may fitly be appended. 

If a first-class di^aughtsman were asked how many parallel 
straight lines he would rule within the space of one inch, 
it is doubtful whether he would undertake more than 150 
to 200 lines. Lord Blythswood's machine can rule four- 
teen parallel lines on a space equivalent to the edge of the 
finest tissue paper. So delicate are the movements of the 
machine that it must be protected from variations of 
temperature, which would contract or expand its parts ; 
so the room in which it stands is kept at an even heat by 
automatic apparatus, and to make things doubly siu-e the 
engine is fui'ther sheltered in a large case having double 
walls inter-packed with cotton wool. 

In constructing the machine it was found impossible, 
with the most scientific tools, to cut a toothed wheel 
sufficiently accurate to drive the mechanism, but the en'ors 
discovered by microscopes were made good by the inven- 
tion of a small electro-plating brush, which added the thin- 
nest imaginable layer of metal to any tooth found deficient. 

During the process of ruling a grating of only a few square 

30 I 



DELICATE INSTRUMENTS 

inches area, the machine must be left severely alone in its 
closed case. The slightest jar would cause unparallelism 
of a few lines, and the ruin of the whole grating. So for 
several days the diamond point has its own way, moving 
backwards and forwards unceasingly over the hard metal, 
in which it chases tiny grooves. At the end the plate has 
the appearance of mother-of-pearl, which is, in fact, one 
of nature's diffraction gratings, breaking up white light 
into the colours of the spectrum. 

You will be able to understand that these mechanical 
gratings are expensive articles. Sometimes the diamond 
point breaks half-way through the ruling, and a week's 
work is spoilt. Also the creation of a reliable machine is 
a very tedious business. Ten pounds per square inch of 
grating is a low price to pay. 

The greatest difficulty met with in the manufacture of 
the dividing engine is that of obtaining a mathematically 
correct screw. Turning on a lathe produces a very rough 
spiral, judged scientifically. Some threads will be deeper 
than others, and differently spaced. The screw must, 
therefore, be ground with emery and oil introduced be- 
tween it and a long nut which is made in four segments, 
and provided with collars for tightening it up against the 
screw. Perhaps a fortnight may be expended over the 
grinding. Then the screw must undergo rigid tests, a nut 
must be made for it, and it has to be mounted in proper 
bearings. The explanation of the method of eliminating 
errors being very technical, it is omitted ; but an idea of 
the care required may be gleaned from Professor Rowlands' 
statement that an uncorrected error of .^Q^^,Q^^^J of an inch 
is quite sufficient to ruin a grating ! 

31 



MODERN MECHANISM 

In the Houses of Parliament there is kept at an even 
temperature a bronze rod, thirty-eight inches long and an 
inch square in section. Near the ends are two wells, 
rather more than half an inch deep, and at the bottom of 
the wells are gold studs, each engraved with a delicate 
cross line on their polished surfaces. The distance be- 
tween the lines is the imperial yard of thirty-six inches. 

The bar was made in 1844 to replace the Standard 
destroyed in 1834, when both Houses of Parliament were 
burned. The original Standard was the work of Bird, 
who produced it in 1760. In June, 1824, an Act had 
been passed legalising this Standard. It says : — 

"The same Straight Line or Distance between the 
Centers of the said Two Points in the said Gold Studs in 
the said Brass Rod, the Brass being at the temperature of 
Sixty-two Degrees by Fahrenheit's Thermometer, shall be 
and is hereby denominated the ' Imperial Standard Yard.' "*" 

To provide for accidents to the bar, the Act continues : 
''And whereas it is expedient that the said Standard 
Yard, if lost, destroyed, defaced, or otherwise injured, 
should be restored to the same Length by reference to 
some invariable natural Standard: And whereas it has 
been ascertained by the Commissioners appointed by His 
Majesty to inquire into the subject of Weights and 
Measures, that the Yard hereby declared to be the Imperial 
Standard Yard, when compared with a Pendulum vibrating 
Seconds of Mean Time in the Latitude of London in 
a Vacuum at the Level of the Sea, is in the proportion of 
Thirty-six Inches to Thirty-nine Inches and one thousand 
three hundred and ninety-three ten-thousandth Parts of 
an Inch." 

32 



DELICATE INSTRUMENTS 

The new bar was made, however, not by this method, 
but by comparing several copies of the original and 
striking their average length. Four accurate duplicates 
of the new standard were secured, one of which is kept in 
the Mint, one in the charge of the Royal Society, one at 
Westminster Palace, and the fourth at the Royal Observa- 
tory, Greenwich. In addition, forty copies were distri- 
buted among the various foreign governments, all of the 
same metal as the original. 

The French metre has also been standardised, being 
equal to one ten-millionth part of a quadrant of the 
earth's meridian (i.e. of the distance from the Equator to 
either of the Poles), that is, to 39-370788 inches. Pro- 
fessor A, A. Michelson has shown that any standard of 
length may be restored by reference to the measurement 
of wave lengths of light, with an error not exceeding one 
ten-millionth part of the whole. 

It might be asked "Why should standards of such 
great accuracy be required ? '''* In rough work, such as 
carpentry, it does not, indeed, matter if measurements are 
the hundredth of an inch or so out. But when we 
have to deal with scientific instruments, telescopes, 
measuring machines, engines for dividing distances on 
a scale, or even with metal turning, the utmost accuracy 
becomes needful ; and a number of instruments will be 
much more alike in all dimensions if compared individually 
with a common standard than if they were only compared 
with one another. Supposing, for instance, a bar of exact 
diameter is copied ; the copy itself copied ; and so on 
a dozen times ; the last will probably vary considerably 
from the correct measurements, 
c 33 



MODERN MECHANISM 

Hence it became necessary to standardise the foot and 
the inch by accurate subdivisions of the yard. This was 
accomplished by Sir Joseph Whit worth, who in 1834 
obtained two standard yards in the form of measure bars, 
and by the aid of microscopes transferred the distance 
between the engraved lines to a rectangular ^/id-measure 
bar, Le. one of which the end faces are exactly a yard 
apart. 

He next constructed his famous machine which is 
capable of detecting length differences of one millionth of 
an inch. Two bars are advanced towards each other by 
screw gearing : one by a screw having twenty threads to 
the inch, and carrying a graduated hand- wheel with 250 
divisions on its rim ; the other by a similar screw, itself 
driven by a worm-screw, working on the rim, which carries 
200 teeth. The worm-screw has a hand-wheel with a 
micrometer graduation into 250 divisions of its circum- 
ference. So that, if this be turned one division, the 
second screw is turned only ^ x -^^ of a division, and 
the bar it drives advances only ^ x ^ x ^^ = i.ooo.ooo 
of an inch. The screw at the other end of the machine 
(which in appearance somewhat resembles a metal lathe) 
is used for rapid adjustment only. 

"He (Sir J. Whitworth) obtained the subdivision of 
the yard by making three foot pieces as nearly alike as 
was possible, and working these foot pieces down until 
each was equal to the others, and placing them end to 
end in his millionth measuring machine ; the total length 
of the three foot pieces was then compared with a standard 
end-measure yard. These three foot pieces were ground 
until they were exactly equal to each other, and the three 

34 




DELICATE MEASURING MACHINES 

The upper^ illustration shows a Pratt-Whitney INIeasuring Machine in operation to decide 
the thickness of a cigarette paper, which is one-thousandth of an inch thick. This 
machine will measure variations of length or thickness as minute as one hundredth- 
thousandth of an inch. The lower illustration shows a Whitworth Measuring Machine 
which is sensitive to variations of one-millionth of an inch. 



DELICATE INSTRUMENTS 

added together are equal to the standard yard. The sub- 
division of the foot into inch pieces was made in the same 
way.* 

A doubt may have arisen in the reader's mind as to the 
possibility of determining whether the measuring machine 
is screwed up to the exact tightness. Would the measuring 
bars not compress a body a little before it appeared tight ? 
Workmen, when measuring a bar with callipers, often judge 
by the sense of touch whether the jaws of the callipers 
pass the bar with the proper amount of resistance; but when 
one has to deal with millionths of an inch, such a method 
would not suffice. So Sir Joseph Whitworth introduced 
a feeling-piece^ or gravity -piece, Mr. T. M. Goodeve 
thus describes it in The Elements of Mechanism : The 
gravity-piece consists of a small plate of steel with 
parallel plane sides, and having slender arms, one for its 
partial support, and the other for resting on the finger of 
the observer. One arm of the piece rests on a part of 
the bed of the machine, and the other arm is tilted up by 
the forefinger of the operator. The plane surfaces are 
then brought together, one on each side of the feeling- 
piece, until the pressure of contact is sufficient to hold it 
supported just as it remained when one end rested on the 
finger. This degree of tightness is perfectly definite, and 
depends on the weight of the gravity-piece, but not on 
the estimation of the observer. 

In this way the expansion due to heat when a 
36-inch bar has been touched for an instant with the 
finger-nail may be detected. 

* G. M. Bond in a lecture delivered before the Franklin Institute, 
February 29th, 1884. 

35 



MODERN MECHANISM 

One of the most beautiful measuring machines com- 
mercially used comes from the factories of the Pratt- 
Whitney Co., Hartford, Connecticut, the well-known 
makers of machine tools and gauges of all kinds. It is 
made in different sizes, the largest admitting an 80-inch 
bar. Variations of -^qq\qq of an inch are readily deter- 
mined by the use of this machine. It therefore serves 
for originating gauge sizes, or for duplicating existing 
standards. The adjusting screw has fifty thi'eads to the 
inch, and its index-wheel is graduated to 400 divisions, 
giving an advance of ^^ ^^^ inch for each division : while 
by estimation this may be further subdivided to indicate 
one -half or even one -quarter of this small amount. 
Delicacy of contact between the measuring faces is 
obtained by the use of auxiliary jaws holding a small 
cylindrical gauge by the pressure of a light helical spring 
which operates the sliding spindle to which one of these 
auxiliary jaws is attached. 

On one side of the " head '''' of the machine is a vertical 
microscope directed downwards on to a bar on the bed- 
plate, in which are a number of polished steel plugs 
graved with very fine central cross lines, each exactly an 
inch distant from either of its neighbours. A cross wire 
in the microscope tells when it is accurately abreast of 
the line below it. Supposing, then, that a standard bar 
three inches in diameter has to be tested. The " head " 
is slid along until the microscope is exactly over the 
" zero "'' plug line, and the divided index-wheel is turned 
until the two jaws press each other with the minimum 
force that will hold up the feeling-piece. Then the head 
is moved back and centred on the 3-inch line, and the 

36 



DELICATE INSTRUMENTS 

bar to be tested is passed between the jaws. If the 
feeling-piece drops out it is too large, and the wheel is 
turned back until the jaws have been opened enough to 
let the bar through without making the feeling-piece fall. 
An examination of the index-wheel shows in hundred- 
thousandths of an inch what the excess diameter is. 

On the other hand, if the bar were too small, the jaws 
would need to be closed a trifle : this amount being 
similarly reckoned. 

We have now got into a region of very " practical 
politics," namely, the subject of gauges. All large 
engineering works which turn out machinery with inter- 
changeable parts, e,g, screws and nuts, must keep their 
dimensions very constant if purchasers are not to be 
disgusted and disappointed. The small motor machinery 
so much in evidence to-day demands that errors should 
be kept within the ten-thousandth of an inch. An 
engineer therefore possesses a set of standard gauges to 
test the diameter and pitch of his screw threads and 
nuts ; the size of tubes, wires ; the circumference of 
wheels, etc. 

Great inconvenience having been experienced by 
American railroad-car builders on account of the vary- 
ing sizes of the screws and bolts which were used on 
the different tracks — though all were supposed to be of 
standard dimensions — the masters determined to put 
things right ; and accordingly Professors Roger and 
Bond and the Pratt- Whitney Co. were engaged to work 
in collaboration in connection with the manufacture of 
tools for minute measurements, viz. to ttt^ttt^ inch. " To 
give an idea of what is implied by this, let it be supposed 

37 



MODERN MECHANISM 

that a person should take a pair of dividing compasses 
and lay off 50,000 prick-marks J inch apart in a straight 
line. To do this the line would require to be over 
520 feet, or nearly a tenth of a mile long. Imagine that 
many prick-marks compressed into the space of an inch, 
and you have an imperfect idea of the minuteness of the 
measurements which can now be made by the Pratt and 
Whitney Co.^^* 

The standard taps and dies were supplied to tool- 
makers and engineers, who could thus determine whether 
articles supplied to them were of the proper dimensions. 
Nothing more was then heard of nuts being a "trifle 
smalP"" or bolts "a leetle large."" And so beautifully 
tempered were the dies made from the standards that 
one manufacturer claimed to have cut 18,800 cold-pressed 
nuts without any difference being perceptible in their 
sizes. 

To appreciate what the difference of a thousandth of 
an inch makes in a true fit, you should handle a set of 
plug and ring gauges ; the ring a true half-inch inter- 
nally, the plugs half-inch, half an inch less one ten- 
thousandth of an inch, and half an inch less one- 
thousandth, in diameter. 

The true half-inch plug needs to be forcibly driven 
into the ring on account of the friction between the 
surfaces. The next, if oiled, will slide in quite easily, 
but if left stationary a moment will "seize,'*'' and have 
to be driven out. The third will wobble very perceptibly, 
and would be at once discarded by a good workman as a 
bad fit. 

* Report on Standard Screw Threads, Philadelphia, 1884. 

38 



I 



DELICATE INSTRUMENTS 

For extremely accurate measurements of rods, calliper 
gauges, shaped somewhat like the letter Y, are used, 
the horns terminating in polished parallel jaws. Such a 
gauge will detect a difference of ^^^^^ inch quite easily. 

So accurately can plug gauges be made by reference 
to a measuring machine, that a gold leaf ^q,Iqq inch 
thick would be three times too thick to insert between 
the gauge and the jaws of the machine ! 

You must remember that in high-class workmanship 
these gauges are constantly being used. As time goes 
on, the " limit of error "^^ allowed in many classes of 
machine parts is gradually lessened, which shows the 
simultaneous improvement of all machinery used in the 
handling of metal. James Watt was terribly hampered, 
when developing his steam-engine, by the difficulty of 
procuring a true cylinder for his pistons to work in with 
any approach to steam-tightness. His first cylinder was 
made by a smith of hammered iron soldered together. ' 
The next was cast and bored, but stuffing it with paper, 
cork, putty, pasteboard, and " old hat ''^ proved useless to 
stem the leakage of steam. No wonder, considering that 
the finished cylinder was one-eighth of an inch larger in 
diameter at one end than at the other. Watt was in 
advance of his time. Neither machinery nor workman- 
ship had progressed sufficiently to meet the requirements 
of the steam-engine. To-day an engineer would con- 
fidently undertake to bore a cylinder five feet in diameter 
with a variation from truth of not more than one five- 
hundredth of an inch. 

Before passing from the subject of measuring machines, 
which play so important a part in modern mechanism, we 

39 



MODERN MECHANISM 

may just glance at the electrical method of Dr. P. E. 
Shaw. He discovered recently that two clean metal 
surfaces can, by means of an electric current, feel one 
another on touching with a delicacy that far transcends 
that of the purely mechanical machine. The mechanism 
he employs is thus devised : A finely cut vertical screw 
having fifty threads to the inch has a disc graduated into 
500 parts. The screw can be turned by means of a 
pulley string from a distance, and it is thus possible to 
give the top end of the screw a movement of ^^ ^^^ inch, 
when a movement corresponding to one graduation is 
made. 

This small movement is reduced by a train of six levers, 
the long arm of each bearing on the short arm of the 
one before it. The movement of the last lever of the 
train is thus reduced to ^7^^ of that of the screw point, 

so a movement of ^,000x25.000 ^^^^ = 100.000.000 ^^^h is 
obtained ! 

How can such a movement be judged ? A telephone 
and voltaic cell are joined to the last lever of the train 
and to the object whose movement is under examination. 
If they touch, the telephone sounds. An observer listens 
in the telephone, and if the object moves for any reason 
he can find out how much it moves by turning the screw 
until contact is made again. 

Out of the many applications of this apparatus three 
may be given. 

(1) A short bar of iron when magnetised elongates 
^^^^^ 1. 000.000 ^f ^^^ length. If further magnetised it 
contracts. These changes can readily be measured with 

the instrument. 

40 



I 



DELICATE INSTRUMENTS 

(2) The smallest sound audible in the telephone is due 
to a movement of the diaphragm of the telephone by 
^^^^^ 60.000,000 ^f ^^ inch. This has been actually 
measured by Dr. Shaw and is by far the smallest distance 
ever directly recorded. It is about twice the diameter 
of the molecules of matter. 

(3) Dispensing with levers, the screw alone is used for 
rougher work. Dr. Shaw has shown that one hundred- 
thousandth of an inch is the smallest dimension visible 
under a microscope. By fitting an electric measuring 
apparatus to the microscope carriage it becomes quite 
easy to measure minute distances. The microscope con- 
tains a cross wire which, when the object has been laid on 
the microscope stage, is centred on one side of the object. 
The electric contact screw is then advanced till it makes 
contact with the stage and a sound arises in the tele- 
phone. A re"ading of the screw disc having been taken, 
the screw is drawn in and the microscope stage is 
traversed sufficiently to bring the wire in line with the 
other side of the object. Once more the operator makes 
electrical contact and gets a second reading, the difference 
between the two being the diameter of the object. In 
this manner the bacillus of tuberculosis has been proved 
to have an average diameter of ^^l^oijo ^^ ^^ inch. 

The same method is employed to gauge the distance 
between the lines on a diffraction grating. 



41 



CHAPTER II 
CALCULATING MACHINES 

THE simplest form of calculating machine was the 
Abacus, on which the schoolboys of ancient Greece 
did their sums. It consisted of a smooth board 
with a narrow rim, on which were arranged rows of 
pebbles, bits of bone or ivory, or silver coins. By replacing 
these little counters by sand, strewn evenly all over its 
surface, the abacus was transformed into a slate for 
writing or geometrical lessons. The Romans took the 
abacus, along with many other spoils of conquest, from 
the Greeks and improved it, dividing it by means of cross- 
lines, and assigning a multiple value to each line with 
regard to its neighbours. From their method of using 
the calculi, or pebbles, we derive our English verb, to 
calculate. 

During the Middle Ages the abacus still flourished, 
and it has left a further mark on oiu* language by giving 
its name to the Court of Exchequer, in which was a table 
divided into chequered squares like this simple school 
appliance. 

Step by step further improvements were made, most 
important among them being those of Napier of Mer- 
chiston, whose logarithms vex the heads of our youth, and 
save many an hour's calculation to people who understand 

42 



CALCULATING MACHINES 

how to handle them. Sir Sapfiuel Morland, Gunter, and 
Lamb invented other contrivances suitable for trigono- 
metrical problems. Gersten and Pascal harnessed trains 
of wheels to their " ready-reckoners,''*' somewhat similar to 
the well-known cyclometer. 

All these devices faded into insignificance when Mr. 
Charles Babbage came on the scene with his famous 
calculator, which is probably the most ingenious piece of 
mechanism ever devised by the human brain. To describe 
the " Difference Engine,**"* as it is called, would be impos- 
sible, so complicated is its character. Dr. Lardner, who 
had a wonderful command of language, and could explain 
details in a manner so lucid that his words could almost 
always be understood in the absence of diagrams, occupied 
twenty-five pages of the Edinburgh Review in the en- 
deavour to describe its working, but gave several features 
up as a bad job. Another clever writer. Dr. Samuel 
Smiles, frankly shuns the task, and satisfies himself with 
the following brief description : — 

" Some parts of the apparatus and modes of action are 
indeed extraordinary — and, perhaps, none more so than 
that for ensuring accuracy in the calculated results — the 
machine actually correcting itself, and rubbing itself back 
into accuracy, by the friction of the adjacent machinery ! 
When an error is made the wheels become locked and 
refuse to proceed ; thus the machine must go rightly or 
not at all — an arrangement as nearly resembling volition 
as anything that brass and steel are likely to accomplish.""* 

Mr. Babbage, in 1822, entered upon the task of super- 
intending the construction of a machine for calculating 
* Industrial Biographiesy chap. xiii. 
43 



MODERN MECHANISM 

and printing mathematical and astronomical tables. He 
began by building a model, which produced forty-four 
figures per minute. The next year the Royal Society 
reported upon the invention, which appeared so promising 
that the Lords of the Treasury voted Mr. Babbage £1,500 
to help him perfect his apparatus. 

He looked about for a first-rate mechanician of high 
intelligence as well as of extreme manual skill. The man 
he wanted appeared in Mr. Joseph Clement, who had 
already made his name as the inventor of a drawing 
instrument, a self-acting lathe, a self-centring chuck, and 
fluted taps and dies. Mr. Clement soon produced special 
tools for shaping the various parts of the machine. So 
elaborate was the latter, that, according to Dr. Smiles, 
"the drawings for the calculating machinery alone — not 
to mention the printing machinery, which was almost 
equally elaborate — covered not less than four hundred 
square feet of surface ! *''' 

You will easily imagine, especially if you have ever had 
a special piece of apparatus made for you by a mechanic, 
that the bills mounted up at an alarming rate ; so fast, 
indeed, that the Government began to ask. Why this 
great expense, and so little visible result? After seven 
years' work the engineers'* account had reached £7,200, 
and Mr. Babbage had disbursed an additional £7,000 out 
of his own pocket. Mr. Clement quarrelled with his 
employer — possibly because he harboured suspicions that 
they were both off* on a wild-goose chase — and withdrew, 
taking all his valuable tools with him. The Government 
soon followed his example, and poor Babbage was left 
with his half-finished invention, " a beautiful fragment of 

44 




A MECHANICAL CASHIER 

The printing apparatus of a National Cash Register. It impresses on a paper strip the 
amount and nature of every money transaction ; and also prints a date, number, adver- 
tisement, money value, and nature of business done on a ticket for the customer. 






CALCULATING MACHINES 



a great work."*' It had been designed to calculate as far as 
twenty figures, but was completed only sufficiently to go 
to five figures. In 1862 it occupied a prominent place 
among the mechanical exhibits at the Great Exhibition. 

We learn, with some satisfaction, that all this effort 
was not fated to be fruitless. Two scientists of Stockholm 
— Scheutz by name — were so impressed by Dr. Lardner's 
account of this calculating machine that they carried 
Babbage^s scheme through, and after twenty years of hard 
work completed a machine which seemed to be almost 
capable of thinking. The English Government spent 
£1,200 on a copy, which at Somerset House entered upon 
the routine duty of working out annuity and other tables 
for the Registrar-General. 

From Babbage's wonderfully and fearfully made machine 
we pass to a calculator which to-day may be seen at work 
in hundreds of thousands of shops and offices. 

It is the most modern substitute for the open till ; and, 
by the aid of marvellous interior works, acts as account- 
keeper and general detective to the money transactions of 
the establishment in which it is employed. 

There are very many types of Cash Register, and as it 
would be impossible to enumerate them all, we will pass at 
once to the most perfect type of all, known to the makers 
and vendors as " Number 95.'*' 

This register has at the top an oblong window. Dotted 
about the surface confronting the operator are, in the 
particular machine under notice, fifty-seven keys ; six 
bearing the letters A, B, D, E, H, K ; three the woixis 
"Paid out,"" "Charge,"' "Received on Account"; and the 
others money values ranging from £9 to Id. 

45 



MODERN MECHANISM 

These are arranged in vertical rows. At the left end 
of the instrument is a printing apparatus, kept locked 
by the proprietor; at the right end a handle and a small 
lever. Below the register are six drawers, each labelled 
with an initial. 

A customer enters the shop, and buys goods to the 
value of 6s. lid. An assistant, to whom belongs the 
letter H, receives a sovereign in payment. He goes to 
the register, and after making sure that his drawer is 
pushed in till it is locked, first presses down the key H, 
and then the keys labelled "6*." and " lid." Suddenly,' 
like two Jacks-in-the-box, up fly into the window two' 
tablets, with «6^. lid" on both their faces, so that 
customer and assistant can see the figures. Simul- 
taneously a bell of a certain tone rings, drawer H flies 
open (so that he may place the money in it and give 
change, if necessary), and a rotating arm in the window 
shows the word " cash." 

The assistant now revolves the handle and presses the 
little lever. From a slot on the left side out flies a 
ticket, on the front of which is printed the date, a 
consecutive number, the assistant's letter, and the amount 
of the sale. The back has also been covered with an 
advertisement of some kind. The ticket and change are 
handed over to the customer, the drawer is shut, and the 
transaction is at an end, except for an entry in the shop's 
books of the article sold. 

A carrier next comes in with a parcel on which five- 
pence must be paid for transport. Mr. A. receives the 
goods, goes to the register, presses his letter, the key 
with the words "paid out" on it, and the key carrying 

46 



CALCULATING MACHINES 

" 56?.,'' takes out the amount wanted, and gives it to the 
carrier. 

Again, a gentleman enters, and asks for change for 
half a sovereign. Mr. B. obliges him, pressing down his 
letter, but no figures. 

Fourthly, a debtor to the shop pays five shillings to 
meet an account that has been against him for some 
time. Mr. K. receives the money and plays with the 
keys K, " Received on account,**" and " 5^.,'''' giving a ticket 
receipt. 

Lastly, a customer buys a pair of boots on credit. Mr. 
D. attends to him, and though no cash is handled, uses 
the register, pressing the letter " Charge,"' and, say, 
"I6s. 6dr 

Now what has been going on inside the machine all 
this time. Let us lift up the cover, take off the case of 
the printing apparatus, and see. 

A strip of paper fed through the printing mechanism 
has on it five rows of figures, letters, etc., thus — 

s. d. 

H 6 11 
Pd. A 5 

BOO 
Re. K 5 
Ch. D 16 6 

The proprietor is, therefore, enabled to see at a glance 
(1) who served or attended to a customer, (2) what kind 
of business he did with him, (3) the monetary value of 
the transaction. At the end of the day each assistant 
sends in his separate account, which should tally exactly 
with the record of the machine. 

47 



MODERN MECHANISM 

Simultaneously with the strip printing, special counting 
apparatus has been (a) adding up the total of all money 
taken for goods, (b) recording the number of times the 
drawer has been opened for each purpose. Here, again, 
is a check upon the records. 

This ingenious machine not only protects the proprietor 
against carelessness or dishonesty on the part of his 
employes, but also protects the latter against one another. 
If only one drawer and letter were used in common, it 
would be impossible to trace an error to the guilty party. 
The lettering system also serves to show which assistant 
does the most business. 

Where a cash register of this type is employed every 
transaction must pass tlirough its hands — or rather 
mechanism. It would be risky for an assistant not to 
use the machine, as eyes may be watching him. He 
cannot open his drawers without making a record; nor 
can he make a record without first closing the drawers; 
so that he must give a reason for each use of the register. 
If he used somebody else'^s letter, the ear of the rightful 
owner would at once be attracted by the note of his 
particular gong. When going awa/ for lunch, or on 
business, a letter can be locked by means of a special key, 
which fits none of the other five locks. 

The printing mechanism is particularly ingenious. 
Every morning the date is set by means of index-screws : 
and a consecutive numbering train is put back to zero. 
A third division accommodates a circular "electro'' 
block for printing the advertisements, and a fourth 
division the figure wheels. 

The turn given to the handle passes a length of the 

48 



CALCULATING MACHINES 

ticket strip through a slot — prints the date, the number 
of the ticket, an advertisement on the back, the assistants 
letter, the nature of the business done, and feeds the 
paper on to the figures which give the finishing touch. 
A knife cuts off the ticket, and a special lever shoots it 
out of the slot. 

The National Cash Register Company, for prudential 
reasons, do not wish the details of the internal machinery 
to be described ; nor would it be an easy task even were 
the permission granted. So we must imagine the extreme 
intricacy of the levers and wheels which perform all the 
tasks enumerated, and turn aside to consider the origin 
and manufacture of the register, which are both of 
interest. 

The origin of the cash register is rather nebulous, 
because twenty-five years ago several men were working 
on the same idea. It first appeared as a practical machine 
in the offices of John and James Ritty, who owned stores 
and coalmines at Dayton, Ohio. James Ritty helped and 
largely paid for the first experiments. He needed a 
mechanical cashier for his own business, and says that, 
while on an ocean steamer en route to London the 
revolving machinery gave him the suggestion worked out, 
on his return to Dayton, in the first dial-machine. This 
gave way to the key-machine with its display tablet, or 
indicator, held up by a supporting bar moved back by 
knuckles on the vertical tablet rod. 

The cut (Fig. 1) shows the right side of this key 

register, the action of which is thus described by the 

National Cash Register Company. The key A, when 

pressed with the finger at its ordinary position — marked 

D 49 



MODERN MECHANISM 

1 — went down to the point marked 2. Being a lever and 
pivoted to its centre, pressing down a key elevated its 
extreme point B. This pushed up the tablet-rod C, 
having on its upper part the knuckle D. This knuckle 
D, pushed up, took the position at E ; that is, the 
knuckle pushed back the supporting-bar F, and was 
pushed past it and held above it. If the same opera- 




FlG. 1 



tion were performed on another key, the knuckle on its 
vertical rod, going up, would again push the supporting 
bar back, which would release the first knuckled rod, and 
leave the last one in its place. This knuckled rod had on 
its upper end the display tablet, or indicator G. James 
and John Ritty claimed and proved that they invented 
this, but the attorney for the Dayton Company (formed 
by them) in the Supreme Court was compelled to admit 
that this mechanism was old. Yet if machines built like 
this were exhibited elsewhere, they were at most only 

50 



CALCULATING MACHINES 

experimental models, and none of them had ever gone 
into practical or commercial use. In fact, at this time 
nothing had been really contributed which was useful to 
the public or used by the public. 

The trouble was that the knuckles, being necessarily 
oiled, held dust and dirt which interfered with their free 
movement. And again, a " five-cent '' or " ten-cent ^^ key 
would be used more than others, and hence would become 
more worn. As a practical result the tablets did not drop 
when wanted, and the whole operation was thrown into 
confusion. When one tablet went up the other tablet 
stayed up, leaving a false indication. The most valuable 
modification now made by these Dayton inventors was to 
cease to rely on the knuckle to move back the supporting 
bar, and to supply the place of this function by what 
became known as "connecting mechanism,'" especially 
designed for this purpose. This was placed at the other, 
or say the left, side of the machine as you faced it. Cut 
No. 2 shows this new connecting mechanism. The keys, 
when pressed, performed the functions as before, on the 
right side of the machine, viz. to ring an alarm-bell, etc. ; 
but on the other, or left, side the key, when pressed, 
operated the connecting mechanism marked M, N, O, P, 
and Q. The key pressed down by its leverage pushed 
back a little lever (Q), the further end of which pressed 
back the supporting bar F, and released the previously 
exposed indicator G, without relying on the knuckle to 
perform this function. 

The Supreme Court of the United States said that the 
suggestion or idea to correct the old trouble and to drop 
the display tablet with certainty, and to accomplish this 

51 



MODERN MECHANISM 

hy dividing the force used^ and applying a portion of it to 
the new connecting mechanism on the left side of the 
machine, " was fine invention,"*" and that " the results are 
so important, and the ingenuity displayed to bring them 
about is such that we are not disposed to deny the 
patentees the merit of invention. The combination de- 
scribed in the nrst claim was clearly new."' 

To revert for a moment to the origin of the invention. 
Mr. John Ritty gives an account differing from that of 
his brother ; but the two can probably be reconciled by 
supposing that the first ideas occurred simultaneously and 
were worked out in common. 

Late one summer night, before dispersing home, a 
group of men were in his store. One of them said to the 
proprietor, " If you had a machine there to register the 
cash received, you would get more of it,**** and to the state- 
ment both owner and his clerks assented. This raised a 
laugh. But Ritty who, in spite of a large business, which 
ranged over everything from a needle to a haystack, did 
not make much profit by his sales, took the suggestion 
seriously, and put on his thinking-cap, with the result that 
the first machine was patented, and profits became very 
greatly increased. 

Before his machine had been perfected a rival was in 
the field. Mr. Thomas Carney, a man who had seen 
much life as a lumber merchant, captain during the 
Civil War, explorer, and railroad promoter, settled down 
in 1884, at Chicago, to the manufacture of coin-changers. 
" When in various businesses,*" he says, "we used gold and 
silver only, and it seemed to be a sheer necessity to have 
something of a money-changer to assist us in handling it 

52 



CALCULATING MACHINES 

and making change. The custom then was to throw the 
different coins into a special receptacle marked for each. I 
invented, and in my own shop built this coin-changer, the 
keys of which, when touched, would, through the tube, 
drop the coin into the hand as wanted. At Chicago we 
made five or six hundred of these coin-changers, but by 
mistake placed the price too low, and after some conference 
I became assured that there was not enough money in it. 




Fig. 2 

A rich Chicago manufacturer had become familiar with 
the urgent need of a cash register, and the losses which 
followed in business without one. The National, at 
Dayton, had then been invented, but had not then been 
perfected as it has been since. Parties at Chicago agreed 
to put up the money if I would invent what would 
answer the purpose of a cash register and make a market- 
able machine. I went home and gave the matter some 
hard thinking, and talking with my son about the matter 

53 



MODERN MECHANISM 

one night, I looked up at the clock and said, 'Why, 
Harry, there is the right thing. Sixty minutes make an 
hour ; one hundred cents make a dollar. All I have got 
to do is to change the wheels a little, put some keys into 
it, and there will be a thing which will register cents, 
dimes, and dollars, just as that clock will register time in 
minutes and hours.^ In clocks the minute wheel, when it 
has revolved to its sixty point, throws its added result of 
sixty minutes over on to another wheel, which takes up 
the story, with one hour in place of the old sixty minutes. 
The first wheel then begins again and goes its round. A 
second complete revolution of the minute wheel throws 
another sixty minutes on to the hour, and gives one more 
hour registered, making two hours, and so on. I took 
some wheels, and with pasteboard made hands and a 
machine. It was very rough, but I took it to my friends 
and explained it to them. We went on, but encountering 
difficulties and obstacles, we merged our whole enterprise 
in the National. I followed it, and have since invented, 
worked, and helped along in the National Cash Register 
ser^'ice. I developed the No. 35 machine which the 
company began on and uses yet. It is now in use in every 
civilised country, for it can be made to register English 
money and any decimal currency.'"* 

In 1883 Dayton contained five families. The following 
year Colonel Robert Patterson bought a large property 
in the neighbourhood, and helped to develop a small 
town, which has since grown into a thriving manu- 
facturing centre. His two sons, John H. Patterson and 
Frank J. Patterson, bought out all the original pro- 
prietors of the National Cash Register, greatly improved 

54 



CALCULATING MACHINES 

the machine*'s mechanism, and built the huge factory 
which employs about 4,000 men, women, and girls, and is 
one of the 'best-equipped establishments in the world to 
promote both an economical output and the comfort 
of the employes. The Company's buildings at Dayton 
cover 892,144 square feet of floor-space, and utilise 140 
acres of ground. In convenience and attractiveness, and 
for light, heat, and ventilation, and all sanitary things, 
these structures are designed to be models of "any used for 
factory purposes. A machine is made and sold every 2| 
minutes in the Dayton, Berlin, and Toronto factories 
collectively. According to its destination, it records 
dollars, shillings, marks, kronen, korona, francs, kroner, 
guildens, pesetas, pesos, milreis, rupees, or roubles. 
Registers are also made to meet the needs of the 
Celestials and the Japanese. 

So necessary is it for these machines to be ever im- 
proving, that the Company, with a wisdom that prevails 
more largely, perhaps, in the United States than else- 
where, offer substantial rewards to the employe who 
records in a book kept specially for the purpose any sug- 
gestion which the committee, after due examination, 
consider likely to improve some detail of mechanism or 
manufacture. Five departments are entirely devoted to 
experiments carried out by a corp of inventors working 
with a special body of skilled mechanics. New patents 
accrue so fast as a result of this organised reseai'ch that 
the National Company now owns 537 letters patent in 
the United States and 394 in foreign countries. 

Many ideas come from outside. If they appear profit^ 
able they are bought and turned over to the Patents 

55 



MODERN MECHANISM 

^ZTZ' "'"' ''"'^ *'^" °" *^ *^^ experimenters. 
These bmld an experimental model, which differs in many 
respects from the types hitherto manufactured. A caS 
2^ster must be above all things strong, so that it 1 
W a heavy blow without getting out of order, and must 
retain its accuracy under all conditions 

thul^n rf '""'.''' '* ^'" ""''''' *^« '-P-tors, who 

t b!cV ' rT ^'' ''""* *"™ '' ^°^^^^ -*' -d send 
It back to the Factory Committee with reports on any 

defects that may have come to light. If the inspectors 

can o I, k„ock the machine out of time they consider 

that they. have done their duty; for they argue that if 

weakne thus developed are put righ^ J pu^W 

short T f 1 '1'^^'"^'^ '""^ machinery if he stops 
short of an actual " brutal assault with violence " 

Next comes the building of the commercial type, which 
will be sold by the thonsan,! n-i. i.- 

to thp tn.1 I *7"'^"d- ^he machine goes down 

Iho list r.t ' ' "'"' '°^^' ^' ^^^^"*3^-«- --bers, 
who hst all the parts, and say how many drill-jigs, mills 

fixtures gauges, etc., are necessary to make eve';";' 

Then they draw out an approximate estimate of the cost 

of producing the tools, and after they have listed the 

parts, they turn them over to the varLs departments 

-h as the drafting-room, blacksmith, shop, patter^ 

shop foundry, etc., after which the various parts are 

machined up. Then the tool-maker assembles together 

the various tools, and makes a number of the parts that 

each tool IS designed for; so that when all the tools have 

done their prehminary work, the makers possess about 

fifty machines "in bits." These are assembled, to prove 

whether the tools do their business efficiently. If any 



CALCULATING MACHINES 

part shows an inclination "to jam,'*'' or otherwise mis- 
behave itself, the tool responsible is altered till its pro- 
ducts are satisfactory. 

Then, and only then — a period of perhaps two years 
may have elapsed since the model was first put in hand — 
the Company begins to entertain a prospect of getting 
back some of the money — any sum up to £50,000 — spent 
in preparations. But they know that if people will only 
buy, they won'^t have much fault to find with their pur- 
chase. "Preparations brings success **' is the motto of 
the N.C.R. So the Company spares no money, and is 
content to have £25,000 locked up in its automatic 
screw-making machines alone ! 

Human as well as inanimate machinery is well tended 
under the roof of the N.C.R. The committee believe 
that a healthy, comfortable employe means good — and 
therefore profitable — work ; and that to work well, em- 
ployes must eat and play well. 

They therefore provide their boys with gardens, 10 feet 
wide by 170 feet in length ; and pay an experienced 
gardener to direct their efforts. To encourage a start, 
bulbs, seeds, slips, etc., are supplied free ; while prizes of 
considerable value help to stimulate competition. 

One day, ten years or more ago, Mr. Patterson saw 
a factory girl trying to warm her tin bucket of cold coffee 
at the steam heater in the workshop. He is a humane 
man, and acting on the unintentional hint he built a 
lunch-room which contains, besides accommodation for 
455 people, a piano and sewing-machine which the women 
can use during their noon recess of eighty minutes. A 
cooking school, dancing classes, and literary club are all 

57 



MODERN MECHANISM 

available to members. The Company encourages its 
workers to own the houses they inhabit, and to make 
them as beautiful as their leisure will permit. Mr. Mosely, 
who took over to America an Industrial Commission of 
Experts in 1902, and an Educational Commission in the 
following year, paid visits on both occasions to the 
National Cash Register Works. In a speech to the Com- 
mittee he said : " I do not know of any institution in the 
world which offers so beautiful an illustration of the 
proper working conditions as the National Cash Register 
Company. Your President has asked me to criticise. 
I cannot find anything to criticise in this factory. I have 
never seen such conditions in any other factory in the 
world, nor have I ever seen so many bright and intelligent 
faces as we have seen at luncheon in both the men'^s and 
women's dining rooms. I believe this factory is as nearly 
perfect as social conditions will permit."** 

Note. — The author desires to express his thanks to the National 
Cash Register Company for the kind help given him in the shape of 
materials for writing and illustrating this chapter. 



58 



CHAPTER III 
WORKSHOP MACHINERY 

THE LATHE PLANING MACHINES THE STEAM HAMMER 

HYDRAULIC TOOLS ELECTRICAL TOOLS IN THE SHIPYARD 

"AW THEN I first entered this city^' said Mr. 

\/\/ William Fairbairn, in an inaugural address 
to the British Association at Manchester in 
1861 5 " the whole of the machinery was executed by hand. 
There were neither planing, slotting, nor shaping machines, 
and with the exception of very imperfect lathes and a few 
drills, the preparatory operations of construction were 
effected entirely by the hands of the workmen. Now, every- 
thing is done by machine tools, with a degree of accuracy 
which the unaided hand could never accomplish. The 
automaton, or self-acting, machine tool has within itself 
an almost creative power ; in fact, so great are its powers 
of adaptation, that there is no operation of the human 
hand that it does not imitate.*'"' 

If such things could be said with justice forty-five years 
ago, what would Mr. Fairbairn think could he see the 
wonderful machinery with which the pr?sent-day work- 
shop is equipped — machinery as relatively superior to the 
devices he speaks of as they were superior to the unaided 
efforts of the human hand ? Invention never stands still. 
The wonder of one year is on the scrap-heap of aban- 

59 



MODERN MECHANISM 

doned machines almost before another twelve months 
have passed. Some important detail has been improved, 
to secure ease or economy in working, and a more efficient 
successor steps into its place. In his curious and original 
Erewhon^ Mr. Samuel Butler depicts a community which, 
from the fear that machinery should become too ingenious, 
and eventually drain away man's capacity for muscular 
and mental action, has risen in revolt against the autom- 
aton, broken up all machines which had been in use for 
less than 270 years — with the exception of specimens re- 
served for the national museums — and reverted to hand 
labour. His treatment of the dangers attending the in- 
creased employment of lifeless mechanisms as a substitute 
for physical effi3rt does not, however, show sympathy with 
the Erewhonians ; since their abandonment of invention 
had obviously placed them at the mercy of any other race 
retaining the devices so laboriously perfected during the 
ages. And we, on our part, should be extremely sorry to 
part with the inanimate helpers which in every path 
of life render the act of living more comfortable and less 
toilsome. 

So dependent are we on machinery, that we owe a 
double debt to the machines which create machines. 
A big factory houses the parents which send out their 
children to careers of usefulness throughout the world. 
We often forget, in our admiration of the offspring, the 
source from which they originated. Our bicycles, so 
admirably adapted to easy locomotion, owe their existence 
to a hundred delicate machines. The express engine, 
hurrying forward over the iron way, is but an assemblage 
of parts which have been beaten, cut, twisted, planed, and 

60 



WORKSHOP MACHINERY 

otherwise handled by mighty machines, each as wonderful 
as the locomotive itself. But then, we don't see these. 

This and following chapters will therefore be devoted 
to a few peeps at the great tools employed in the world's 
workshops. 

If you consider a moment, you will soon build up a 
formidable list of objects in which circularity is a 
necessary or desirable feature — wheels, shafts, plates, 
legs of tables, w^alking- sticks, pillars, parts of instru- 
ments, wire, and so on. The Hindu turner, whose 
assistant revolves with a string a wooden block centred 
between two short spiked posts let into the ground, while 
he himself applies the tool, is at one end of the scale of 
lathe users ; at the other, we have the workman who 
tends the giant machine slowly shaping the exterior of 
a 12-inch gun, a propeller shaft, or a marble column. 
All aim at the same object — perfect rotundity of surface. 

The artisans of the Middle Ages have left us, in 
beautiful balusters and cathedral screens, ample proofs 
that they were skilled workmen with the Turning-Lathe. 
At the time of the Huguenot persecutions large numbers 
of French artificers crossed the Channel to England, 
bringing with them lathes which could cut intricate 
figures by means of wheels, eccentrics and other devices 
of a comparatively complicated kind. The French had 
undoubtedly got far ahead of the English in this branch 
of the mechanical arts, owing, no doubt, to the fact that 
the French noblesse had condescended to include turnery 
among their aristocratic hobbies. 

With the larger employment of metal in all industries 
the need for handling it easily is increased. Much greater 

6i 



MODERN MECHANISM 

accuracy generally distinguishes metal as compared with 
woodwork. "In turning a piece of work on the old- 
fashioned lathe, the workman applied and guided his tool 
by means of muscular strength. The work was made 
to revolve, and the turner, holding the cutting tool firmly 
upon the long, straight, guiding edge of the rest, along 
which he carried it, and pressing its point firmly against 
the article to be turned, was thus enabled to reduce its 
surface to the required size and shape. Some dexterous 
turners were able, with practice and carefulness, to execute 
very clever pieces of work by this simple means. But 
when the article to be turned was of considerable size, 
and especially when it was of metal, the expenditure of 
muscular strength was so great that the workman soon 
became exhausted. The slightest variation in the pressure 
of the tool led to an irregularity of surface ; and with 
the utmost care on the workman's part, he could not 
avoid occasionally cutting a little too deep, in con- 
sequence of which he must necessarily go over the surface 
again to reduce the whole to the level of that accidentally 
cut too deep, and thus possibly the job would be alto- 
gether spoiled by the diameter of the article under 
operation being made too small for its intended 
purpose." * 

Any modern worker is spared this labour and worry by 
the device known as the Slide-Rest. Its name implies 
that it at once affords a rigid support for the tool, and 
also the means of traversing the tool in a straight line 
parallel to the metal face on which work is being done. 

The introduction of the shde-rest is due to the 
* Industrial Biographies^ Dr. S. Smiles. 
62 



WORKSHOP MACHINERY 

ingenuity of Mr. Henry Maudslay, who, at the com- 
mencement of the nineteenth century, was a foreman 
in the workshop of Mr. Joseph Bramah, inventor of the 
famous hydraulic press and locks which bear his name. 
His rest could be moved along the bed of the lathe by 
a screw, and clamped in any position desired. Fellow- 
workmen at first spoke derisively of "Maudslay'^s go- 
cart^'; but men competent to judge its real value had 
more kindly words to say concerning it, when it had been 
adapted to machines of various types for planing as well 
as turnmg. Mr. James Nasmyth went so far as to state 
that "its influence in improving and extending the use 
of machinery has been as great as that produced by the 
improvement of the steam-engine in respect to perfecting 
manufactures and extending commerce, inasmuch as with- 
out the aid of the vast accession to our power of produc- 
ing perfect mechanism which it at once supplied, we could 
never have worked out into practical and profitable forms 
the conceptions of those master minds who, during the 
last half century, have so successfully pioneered the way 
for mankind. The steam-engine itself, which supplies us 
with such unbounded power, owes its present perfection 
to this most admirable means of giving to metallic objects 
the most precise and perfect geometrical forms. How 
could we, for instance, have good steam-engines if we 
had not the means of boring out a true cylinder, or 
turning a true piston-rod, or planing a valve face ? It 
is this alone which has furnished us with the means of 
carrying into practice the accumulated results of scientific 
investigation on mechanical subjects.*" 

The screw-cutting lathe is so arranged that the slide- 

63 



MODERN MECHANISM 

rest is moved along with its tool at a uniform speed by 
gear wheels actuated by the mechanism rotating the 
object to be turned. By changing the wheels the rate 
of "feed"*' may be varied, so that at every revolution 
the tool travels from /^ of an inch upwards along the 
surface of its work. This regularity of action adds 
greatly to the value of the slide-rest ; and the screw 
device also enables the workman to chase a thread of 
absolutely constant "pitch'''* on a metal bar; so that a 
screw-cutting lathe is not only a shaping machine but 
also the equivalent of a whole armoury of stocks and 
dies. 

Some lathes have rests which carry several tools held at 
different distances from its axis, the cuts following one 
another deeper and deeper into the metal in a manner 
exactly similar to the harvesting of a field of corn by a 
succession of reaping machines. The recent improve- 
ments in tool -steel render it possible to get a much 
deeper cut than formerly, without fear of injury to the 
tool from overheating. This results in a huge saving 
of time. 

For the boring of large cylinders an upright lathe is 
generally used, as the weight of the metal might cause a 
dangerous " sag '" were the cylinder attached horizontally 
by one end to a facing-plate. Huge wheels can also be 
turned in this type of machine up to 20 feet or more 
in diameter ; and where the cross-bar carrying the tools is 
fitted with several tool -boxes, two or more operations 
may be conducted simultaneously, such as the turning of 
the flange, the boring of the axle hole, and the facing of 
the rim sides. 

64 




3^ 
-tl O 



-^ s 

> o 






bJO flj 



^.E 



^1 



043 






WORKSHOP MACHINERY 

Perhaps the most imposing of all lathes are those which 
handle large cannon and propeller shafts, such as may be 
seen in the works of Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth, 
and Company ; of Messrs. Vickers, Sons and Maxim ; and 
of other armament and shipbuilding firms. The Mid- 
vale Steel Company have in their shops at Hamilton, 
Ohio, a monster boring lathe which will take in a shaft 
60 feet long, 30 inches in diameter, and bore a hole 
from one end to the other 14 inches in diameter. To do 
this, the lathe must attack the shaft at both ends simul- 
taneously, as a single boring bar of 60 feet would not be 
stiff enough to keep the hole cylindrical. The shaft is 
placed in a revolving chuck in the central portion of the 
lathe — which has a total length of over 170 feet — and 
supported further by two revolving ring rests on each 
side towards the extremities. With work so heavy, the 
feeding up of the tool to its surface cannot be done 
conveniently by hand control, and the boring bars are 
therefore advanced by hydraulic pressure, a very ingenious 
arrangement ensuring that the pressure shall never become 
excessive. 

Perhaps the type of lathe most interesting to the layman 
is the turret lathe, generally used for the manufacture of 
articles turned out in great numbers. The headstock — 
i.e. the revolving part which grips the object to be turned 
— is hollow, so that a rod may be passed right through it 
into the vicinity of the tools, which are held in a hexagon 
"turret,"' one tool projecting from each of its sides. 
When one tool has been finished with, the workman does 
not have the trouble of taking it out of the rest and 
putting another in its place ; he merely turns the turret 
E 65 



MODERN MECHANISM 

round, and brings another instrument opposite the work. 
If the object — say a water-cock — requires five operations 
performing on it in the lathe, the corresponding tools are 
arranged in their proper order round the turret. Stops 
are arranged so that as soon as any tool has advanced as 
far as is necessary a trip-action checks the motion of the 
turret, which is pulled back and given a turn to make it 
ready for the next attack. 

One of the advantages of the turret lathe, particularly 
of the automatic form which shifts roimd the tool-box 
without human intervention, is its power of relieving the 
operator of the purely mechanical part of his work. 
Those who are familiar with the inside of some of our 
large workshops will have noticed men and boys who 
make the same thing all day and every day, and are them- 
selves not far removed from machines. The articles they 
make are generally small and very rapidly produced, and 
the endless repetition of the same movements on the part 
of the operator is very tedious to watch, and must be in- 
finitely more so to perform. Such an occupation is not 
elevating, and those engaged in it cannot take much 
interest in their work, or become fitted for a better posi- 
tion. When this work is done by an automatic lathe the 
machine performs the necessary operations, and the man 
supplies the intelligence, and, by exercising his thinking 
powers, becomes more valuable to his employers and him- 
self. The introduction of new machines and methods 
generally has a stimulating effect on the whole shop, 
whatever the Erewhonians might say. The hubs and 
spindles of bicycles are cut from the solid bar by these 
automata; the tender has merely to feed them with 

66 



WORKSHOP MACHINERY 

metal, and they go on smoothing, shaping, and cutting off 
until the material is all used up. The existence of such 
lathes largely accounts for the low price of our useful 
metal steeds at the present time. 

A great amount of shaping is now done by milling 
cutters in preference to firmly-fixed edged tools. The 
cutter is a rod or disc which has its sides, end, or circum- 
ference serrated with deep teeth, shaped to the section of 
the cut needed. Revolving at a tremendous speed, it 
quickly bites its way into anything it meets just so far as 
a stop allows it to go. 

One of the most ingenious machines to which the mill- 
ing tool has been fitted is the well-known Blanchard 
lathe, which copies, generally in wood, repetitive work, 
such as the stocks for guns and rifles. The lathe has two 
sets of centres — one for the copy, the other for the model 
— parallel on the same bed, and turned at equal speeds 
and in the same direction by a train of gear wheels. The 
milling cutter is attached to a frame, from which a disc 
projects, and is pressed by a spring against the model. As 
the latter revolves, its irregular shape causes the disc, 
frame, and cutter to move towards or away from its 
centre, and therefore towards or away from the centre of 
the copy, which has all superfluities whisked oft* by the 
cutter. The frame is gradually moved along the model, 
reproducing in the rough block a section similar to the 
part of the model which it has reached. 

The self-centring chuck is an accessory which has 
proved invaluable for saving time. It may most easily 
be described as a circular plate which screws on to the 
inner end of the mandrel (the spindle imparting motion 

67 



MODERN MECHANISM 

to the object being machined) and has in its face three 
slots radiating from the centre at angles of 120°. In each 
slot slides a stepped jaw, the under side of which is scored 
with concentric grooves engaging with a helical scroll 
turned by a key and worm gear acting on its circum- 
ference. The jaws approach or recede from the centre 
symmetrically, so that if a circular object is gripped, its 
centre will be in line with the axis of the lathe. Whether 
for gripping a tiny drill or a large wheel, the self-centring 
chuck is indispensable. 

PLANING-MACHINES 

Not less important in engineering than the truly curved 
surface is the true plane, in which, as Euclid would say, 
any two points being taken, the straight line between 
them lies wholly in that superficies. The lathe depends 
for its efficiency on the perfect flatness of all areas which 
should be flat — the guides, the surface plates, the bottom 
and sides of the headstock, and, above all, of the slide 
rest. For making plane metal superficies, a machine must 
first be constructed which itself is above suspicion ; but 
when once built it creates machines like itself, capable of 
reproducing others ad irifinitum. 

Many amateur carpenters pride themselves on the 
beautiful smoothness of the boards over which they have 
run their jack planes. Yet, as compared with the bed 
of a lathe, their best work will appear very inaccurate. 

The engineer's planing-machine in no way resembles its 
wooden relative. In the place of a blade projecting just 
a little way through a surface which prevents it from 
cutting too deep into the substance over which it is 

68 



I 



WORKSHOP MACHINERY 



moving, we have a steel chisel very similar to the cutting 
tools of a lathe attached to a frame passing up and down 
over a bed to which the member holding the chisel is 
perfectly parallel. The article to be planed is rigidly 
attached to the bed and travels with it. Between every 
two strokes the tool is automatically moved sideways, 
so that no two cuts shall be in the same line. After 
the whole surface has been " roughed,'** a finishing cutter 
is brought in action, and the process is repeated with the 
business edge of the tool rather nearer to the bed. 

Joseph Clement, a contemporary of Babbage, Maudslay, 
and Nasmyth, is usually regarded as the inventor of the 
planing-machine. By 1825 he had finished a planer, in 
which the tool was stationary and the work moving under 
it on a rolling bed. Two cutters were attached to the 
overhead cross rail, so that travel in either direction 
might be utilised. The bed of the machine, on which 
the work was laid, passed under the cutters on perfectly 
true rollers or wheels, lodged and held in their bearings as 
accurately as the best mandrel could be, and having set 
screws acting against their ends, totally preventing all 
end-motion. The machine was bedded on a massive and 
solid foundation of masonry in heavy blocks, the support 
at all points being so complete as effectually to destroy all 
tendency to vibration, with the object of securing full, 
round, and quiet cuts. The rollers on which the planing- 
machine travelled were so true, that Clement himself used 
to say of them, " If you were to put a paper shaving 
under one of the rollers it would at once stop the rest."' 
Nor was this an exaggeration — the entire mechanism, 
notwithstanding its great size, being as true and accurate 

69 



MODERN MECHANISM 

as a watch.'' * Mr. Clement next made a revolving attach- 
ment for the bed, in which bodies could be revolved under 
the cutter, on an axis parallel to the direction of travel. 
According to the wish of the operator, the object was 
converted into a cylinder, cone, or prism by its movements 
under the planing-tool. So efficient was the machine that 
it earned its maker upwards of ten pounds a day, at the 
rate of about eighteen shillings a square foot, until rivals 
appeared in the field and finally reduced the cost of 
planing to a few pence for the same area. 

There are two main patterns of planes now in general 
use. The first follows the original design of Clement ; 
the second has a fixed bed but a moving tool. Where 
the work is very heavy, as in the case of armour-plates 
for battleships, the power required to suddenly reverse the 
motion of a vast mass of metal is enormous, many times 
greater than the energy expended on the actual planing. 
For this reason the moving-bed machines have had to be 
greatly improved ; and in some cases replaced by fixed-bed 
planers. 

It is an impressive sight to watch one of these huge 
mechanisms reducing a rough plate, weighing twenty tons 
or more, to a smoothness which would shame the best 
billiard table. The machine, which towers thirty feet 
into the air and completely dwarfs the attendant, who 
has it as thoroughly under control as if it were a small 
file, bites great shining strips forty feet long, maybe, off 
the surface of the passive metal, and leaves a series of 
grooves as truly parallel as the art of man can make them. 
There is no fuss, no sticking, no stop, no noise ; the force 
* Industrial Biographies. 
70 



WORKSHOP MACHINERY 

of electricity or steam, transmitted through wonderfully 
cut and arranged gear-wheels, is irresistible. The tool, so 
hard that a journey through many miles of steel has no 
appreciable effect on its edge, shears its way remorselessly 
over the surface which presently may be tempered to a 
toughness resembling its own. If you want to resharpen 
the tool, it will be no good to attack it with any known 
metal. But somewhere in the works there is a machine 
whose buzzing emery-wheels are more than a match for it, 
and rapidly grind the blunted edge into its former shape, 
so that it is ready to flay another plate, one skin at a 
time. 

Planing-machines are of many shapes. Some have an 
upright on each side of the bed limiting the width of the 
work they can take ; others are open-sided, one support of 
extra strength replacing the two, enabling the introduc- 
tion of a plate twice as broad as the bed. Others, again, 
are built on the verge of a pit, so that they may cut the 
edges of an up-ended plate, and make it fit against its 
fellows so truly that you could not slip a sheet of paper 
edgeways between them. Thus has man, so frail and 
delicate in himself, shaped metal till it can torture its 
kind to suit his will, which he makes known to it by 
opening this valve or pulling on that lever. Not only 
does he flay it, but pierces it through and through ; twists 
it into all manner of shapes ; hacks masses off* as easily as 
he would cut slices from a loaf; squeezes it in terrible 
presses to a fraction of its original thickness ; and other- 
wise so treats it that we are glad that our scientific obser- 
vations have as yet discovered no sentience in the 
substances reduced to our service. 

71 



MODERN MECHANISM 



THE STEAM HAMMER 

The Scandinavian god Thor was a marvellous black- 
smith. Thursday should remind us weekly of Odin's son, 
from whose hammer flashed the lightning; and, through 
him, of Vulcan, toiling at his smithy in the crater of 
Vesuvius. In spite of the pictures drawn for us by pagan 
mythologists of their god-smiths, we are left with the 
doubt whether these beings, if materialised, might not 
themselves be somewhat alarmed by the steam hammer 
which mere mortals wield so easily. 

The forge is without dispute the "show-place" of a big 
factory, where huge blocks of metal feel the heavy hand 
of steam. As children we watched the blacksmith at his 
anvil, attracted and yet half-terrified by the spark-showers 
flying from a white-hot horseshoe. And even the adult, 
long used to startling sights, might well be fascinated and 
dismayed by the terrific blows dealt on glowing ingots by 
the mechanical sledge. 

James Nasmyth, the inventor of this useful machine, 
was the son of a landscape painter, who from his earliest 
youth had taken great interest in scientific and mechanical 
subjects of all kinds. At fifteen he made a steam-engine 
to grind his father's paints, and five years later a steam 
carriage " that ran many a mile with eight persons on it. 
After keeping it in action two months," he says in an 
account of his early life, " to the satisfaction of all who 
were interested in it, my friends allowed me to dispose of 
it, and I sold it— a great bargain— after which the engine 
was used in driving a small factory. I may mention that 
in that engine I employed the waste steam to cause an 

72 




A steam hammer at work in Woolwich Arsenal, forging a steel ingot for the inner tube oC a 
big gun. It delivers a blow e(iuivalent to the momentum of a falling mass weighing 
4000 tons. As speech is inaudible, the foreman gives hand signals to direct his men, who 
wear large canvas lingerless gloves to protect their hands from the intense heat. 



WORKSHOP MACHINERY 

increased draught by its discharge up the chimney. This 
important use of waste steam had been introduced by 
George Stephenson some years before, though entirely 
unknown to me.**" 

This interesting peep at the infancy of the motor 
carriage reveals mechanical capabilities of no mean order 
in young James. He soon entered the service of Mr. 
Joshua Field, Henry Maudslay's partner, and in 1834 set 
up a business on his own account at Manchester, 

At this date the nearest approach to the modern steam 
hammer was the "tilt'*'' hammer, operated by horse-, water-, 
or steam-power. It resembled an ordinary hand hammer 
on a very large scale, but as it could be raised only a 
small distance above its anvil, it became less effective as 
the size of the work increased, owing to the fall being 
"gagged."' In 1837 Mr. Nasmyth interviewed the 
directors of the Great Western Steamship Company with 
regard to the manufacture of some unusually powerful 
tools which they needed for forging the paddle-shaft of the 
Great Bjitain. As the invention of the steam-engine had 
demanded the improvement of turning methods, so now 
the increase in the size of steamboats showed the insuffi- 
ciency of forging machinery. 

Mr. Nasmyth put on his thinking-cap. Evidently the 
thing needed was a method for raising a very heavy mass 
of metal easily to a good height, so that its great weight 
might fall with crushing force on the object between it 
and the anvil. How to raise it ? Brilliant idea ! Steam ! 
In a moment Nasmyth had mentally pictured an inverted 
steam cylinder rested on a solid upright overhanging the 
anvil and a block of iron attached to its pi«ton-rod. All 

73 



MODERN MECHANISM 

that would then be necessary was to admit steam to the 
under side of the piston until the block had risen to its 
fall height, and to suddenly open a valve which would cut 
oif the steam supply and allow the vapour already in the 
cylinder to escape. 

By the next post he sent a sketch to the company, who 
approved his design heartily, but were unable to use it, 
since the need for the paddle-shaft had already been 
nullified by the substitution of a screw as the motive 
power of their ship. Poor Nasmyth knew that he had 
discovered a "good thing,'''' but British forge-masters, 
with a want of originality that amounted to sheer blind 
stupidity, refused to look at the innovation. " We have 
not orders enough to keep in work the forge-hammers we 
have,"' they wrote, " and we don''t want any new ones, how- 
ever improved they may be.'''' 

His invention, therefore, appeared doomed to failure. 
Help, however, came from France in the person of 
Mr. Schneider, founder of the famous Creusot Iron 
Works, notorious afterwards as the birthplace of the 
Boer " Long Toms.'' Mr. Nasmyth happened to be away 
when Mr. Schneider and a friend called at the Manchester 
works, but his partner, Mr. Gaskell, showed the French 
visitors round the works, and also told them of the pro- 
posed steam hammer. The designs were brought out, so 
that its details might be clearly explained. 

Years afterwards Nasmyth returned the visit, and saw 
in the Creusot Works a crank-shaft so large that he asked 
how it had been forged. "By means of your steam 
hammer,'*'* came the reply. You may imagine Nasmyth'^s 
surprise on finding the very machine at work in France 

74 



WORKSHOP MACHINERY 

which his own countrymen had so despised, and his 
delight over its obvious success. 

On returning home he at once raised money enough to 
secure a patent, protected his invention, and began to 
manufacture what has been described as "one of the 
most perfect of artificial machines and noblest triumphs 
of mind over matter that modern English engineers have 
developed.**' A few weeks saw the first — a 30-cwt. — 
hammer at work. People flocked to watch its precision, 
its beauty of action, and the completeness of control 
which could arrest it at any point of its descent so instan- 
taneously as to crack without smashing a nut laid on the 
anvil. " Its advantages were so obvious that its adoption 
soon became general, and in the course of a few years 
Nasmyth steam hammers were to be found in every well- 
appointed workshop both at home and abroad.**** * 

Nasmyth'*s invention was improved upon in 1853 by 
Mr. Robert Wilson, his partner and successor. He added 
an automatic arrangement which raised the "tup,**** or 
head, automatically from the metal it struck, so that time 
was saved and loss of heat to the ingot was also avoided. 
The beauty of the " balance valve,**** as it was called, will 
be more clearly understood if we remember that the 
travel of the hammer is constantly increasing as the piece 
on the anvil becomes thinner under successive blows. 
Under the influence of this very ingenious valve every 
variety of blow could be dealt. By simply altering the 
position of a tappet lever by means of two screws, a blow 
of the exact force required could be repeated an indefinite 
number of times. " It became a favourite amusement to 
* Industrial Biographies, 
75 



MODERN MECHANISM 

place a wine-glass containing an egg upon the anvil, and 
let the block descend upon it with its quick motion ; and 
so nice was its adjustment, and so delicate its mechanism, 
that the great block, weighing perhaps several tons, could 
be heard playing tap, tap upon the egg without even 
cracking the shell, when, at a signal given to the man in 
charge, down would come the great mass, and the egg and 
glass would be apparently, as Walter Savage Landor has 
it, ' blasted into space.' '' * 

Later on Mr. Wilson added an equally important 
feature in the shape of a double-action hand-gear, which 
caused the steam to act on the top as well as the bottom 
of the piston, thus more than doubling the effect of the 
hammer. 

The largest hammer ever made was that erected by the 
Bethlehem Iron Company of Pennsylvania. The " tup "' 
weighed 125 tons. After being in use for three years the 
owners consigned it to the scrap-heap, as inferior to the 
hydraulic press for the manufacture of armour-plate, 
though it had cost them £50,000. They then erected in 
its stead, for an equal sum of money, a 14,000-ton pres- 
sure hydraulic press, which fitly succeeds it as the most 
powerful of its kind in the world. 

The change was made for three reasons. First, that 
the impact of so huge a block of metal necessitates the 
anvil being many times as heavy, and even then the shock 
to surrounding machinery may be very severe. Secondly, 
the larger the forging to be hammered, the less is the 
reaction of the anvil, so that all the force of the blow 
tends to be absorbed by the side facing the hammer; 

* Chambers's EncyclopcBdia. 
76 



WORKSHOP MACHINERY 

whereas with a small bar the anviPs inertia would have 
almost as much effect as the actual blow. Thirdly, the 
blow of the hammer is so instantaneous that the metal 
has not time to " flow ""^ properly, and this leads to imper- 
fect forgings, the surface of which may have been cracked. 
For very large work, therefore, the hammer is going out 
of fashion and the press coming in, though for lighter 
jobs it is still widely used. 

Before leaving the subject we may glance at the 
double-headed horizontal hammer, such as is to be found 
in the forge-shop of the Horwich Railway Works. Two 
hammers, carried on rails and rollers, advance in unison 
from each side and pound work laid on a support between 
them. Each acts as anvil to the other, while doing its 
full share of the work. So that not only is a great deal 
of weight saved, but shocks are almost entirely absorbed ; 
while the fact that each hammer need make a blow of 
only half the length of what would be required from a 
single hammer, enables twice as many blows to be delivered 
in a given time. 

HYDRAULIC TOOLS 

Before discussing these in detail we shall do well to 
trace the history of the Bramah press, which may be said 
to be their parent, since the principle employed in most 
hydraulic devices for the workshop, as also the idea of 
using water as a means of transmitting power under 
pressure, are justly attributed to Joseph Bramah. 

If you take a dive into the sea and fall flat on the 
surface instead of entering at the graceful angle you in- 
tended, you will feel for some time afterwards as if an 
enemy had slapped you violently on the chest and 

77 



MODERN MECHANISM 

stomach. You have learnt by sad experience that water, 
which seems to offer so little resistance to a body drawn 
slowly through it, is remarkably hard if struck violently. 
In fact, if enclosed, it becomes more incompressible than 
steel, without in any way losing its fluidity. We possess 
in water, therefore, a very useful agent for transmitting 
energy from one point to another. Shove one end of a 
column of water, and it gives a push to anything at its 
other end ; but then it must be enclosed in a tube to 
guide its operation. 

By a natural law all fluids press evenly on every unit 
of a surface that confines them. You may put sand into 
a bucket with a bottom of cardboard and beat hard upon 
the surface of the sand without knocking out the bottom. 
The friction between the sand particles and the buckets 
sides entirely absorbs the blow. But if water were sub- 
stituted for sand and struck with an object that just 
fitted the bucket so as to prevent the escape of liquid, 
the bottom, and sides, too, would be ripped open. The 
N^Titer of this book once fired a candle out of a gun at 
a hermetically sealed tin of water to see what the effect 
would be. (Another candle had already been fired 
through an iron plate ^ of an inch thick.) The impact 
sl'ightly compressed the water in the tin, which gave back 
all the energy in a recoil which split the sheet metal open 
and flung portions of it many feet into the air. But the 
candle never got through the side. 

This affords a very good idea of the almost absolute 
incompressibility of a liquid. 

We may now retura to history. Joseph Bramah was 
bom in 1748 at Barnsley, in Yorkshire. As the son 

78 



WORKSHOP MACHINERY 

of a farm labourer his lot in life would probably have 
been to follow the plough had not an accident to his 
right ankle compelled him to earn his living in some 
other way. He therefore turned carpenter and developed 
such an aptitude for mechanics that we find him, when 
forty years old, manufacturing the locks with which his 
name is associated, and six years later experimenting 
with the hydraulic press. This may be described simply 
as a large cylinder in which works a solid piston of a 
diameter almost equal to that of the bore, connected to 
a force pump. Every stroke of the pump drives a little 
water into the cylinder, and as the water pressure is the 
same throughout, the total stress on the piston end is 
equal to that on the pump plunger multiplied by the 
number of times that the one exceeds the other in area. 
Suppose, then, that the plunger is one inch in diameter 
and the piston one foot, and that a man drives down 
the plunger with a force of 1,000 lbs., then the total 
pressure on the piston end will be 144 x 1,000 lbs. ; but 
for every inch that the plunger has travelled the piston 
moves only yj^ of an inch, thus illustrating the law that 
what is gained in time is lost in power, and vice versa. 

The great difficulty encountered by Bramah was the 
prevention of leakage between the piston and the cylinder 
walls. If he packed it so tightly that no water could 
pass, then the piston jammed ; if the packing was eased, 
then the leak recommenced. Bramah tried all manner of 
expedients without success. At last his foreman, Henry 
Maudslay — already mentioned in connection with the 
lathe slide-rest — conceived an idea which showed real 
genius by reason of its very simplicity. Why not, he 

79 



MODERN MECHANISM 

said, let the water itself give sufficient tightness to the 
packing, which must be a collar of stout leather with an 
inverted U-shaped section ? This suggestion saved the 
situation. A recess was turned in the neck of the cylinder 
at the point formerly occupied by the stuffing-box, and 
into this the collar was set, the edges pointing downwards. 
When water entered under pressure it forced the edges 
in different directions, one against the piston, the other 
against the wall of the recess, with a degree of tightness 
proportioned to the pressure. As soon as the pressure 
was removed the collar collapsed, and allowed the piston 
to pass back into the cylinder without friction. A similar 
device, to turn to smaller things for a moment, is em- 
ployed in a cycle tyre inflater, a cup-shaped leather being 
attached to the rear end of the piston to seal it diu-ing 
the pressure stroke, though acting as an inlet valve for 
the suction stroke. 

What we owe to Joseph Bramah and Henry Maudslay 
for their joint invention — the honour must be divided, like 
that of designing the steam hammer between Nasmyth and 
\Yilson — it would indeed be hard to estimate. Wherever 
steady but enormous effort is required for lifting huge girders, 
houses, ships; for forcing wheels off their axles; for eleva- 
tors ; for advancing the boring shield of a tunnel ; for com- 
pressing hay, wool, cotton, wood, even metal ; for riveting, 
bending, drilling steel plates — there you will find some modi- 
fication of the hydraulic press useful, if not indispensable. 

However, as we are now prepared for a consideration of 
details, we may return to our workshop, and see what 
water is doing there. Outside stands a cylindrical object 
many feet broad and high, which can move up and down 

80 



WORKSHOP MACHINERY 

in vertical guides. If you peep underneath, you notice 
the shining steel shaft which supports the entire weight 
of this tank or coffer filled with heavy articles — stones, 
scrap iron, etc. The shaft is the piston-plunger of a very 
long cylinder connected by pipes to pumping engines and 
hydraulic machines. It and the mass it bears up serves 
as a reservoir of energy. If the pumping engines were 
coupled up directly to the hydraulic tools, whenever a 
workman desired to use a press, drill, or stamp, as the 
case might be, he would have to send a signal to the 
engine-man to start the pumps, and another signal to tell 
him when to stop. This would lead to great waste of 
time, and a danger of injuring the tackle from over 
driving. But with an accumulator there is always a 
supply of water under pressure at command, for as soon 
as the ram is nearly down, the engines are automatically 
started to pump it up again. In short, the accumulator 
is to hydraulic machinery what their bag is to bagpipes, 
or the air reservoir to an organ. 

In large towns high-pressure water is distributed 
through special mains by companies who make a business 
of supplying factories, engineering works, and other 
places where there is need for it, though not sufficient 
need to justify the occupiers in laying down special pump- 
ing plant. London can boast five central distributing 
stations, where engines of 6,500 h.p. are engaged in 
keeping nine large accumulators full to feed 120 miles 
of pipes varying in diameter from seven inches down- 
wards. The pressure is 700 lbs. to the square inch. 
Liverpool has twenty-three miles of pipes under 850 lbs. 
pressure; Manchester seventeen miles under 1,100 lbs. 
F 8i 



MODERN MECHANISM 

To these may be added Glasgow, Hull, Birmingham, 
Geneva, Paris, Berlin, Antwerp, and many other large 
cities in both Europe and the United States. 

For very special purposes, such as making metal forg- 
ings, pressures up to twelve tons to the square inch may be 
required. To produce this '^ intensifiers **" are used, i.e, 
presses worked from the ordinary hydraulic mains which 
pump water into a cylinder of larger diameter connected 
with the forging press. 

The largest English forging press is to be found in the 
Openshaw Works of Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth, 
and Company. Its duty is to consolidate armour-plate 
ingots by squeezing, preparatory to their passing through 
the rolling mills. It has one huge ram 78 inches 
in diameter, into the cylinder of which water is 
pumped by engines of 4,000 h.p., under a pressure of 
6,720 lbs. to the square inch, which gives a total ram 
force of 12,000 tons. It has a total height of 33 feet, 
is 22 feet wide, and 175 feet long, and weighs 1,280 
tons. On each side of the anvil is a trench fitted with 
platforms and machinery for moving the ingot across the 
ingot block. Two 100-ton electric cranes with hydraulic 
lifting cylinders serve the press. 

The Bethlehem Works " squeezer ''"' has two rams, each 
of much smaller diameter than the Armst^ong-^^^aitworth, 
but operated by a 10| tons pressure to the square inch. 
It handles ingots of over 120 tons weight for armour- 
plating. In 1895 Mr. William Corey, of Pittsburg, 
took out a patent for toughening nickel steel plates by 
subjecting them, while heated to a temperature of 
2,000° F., to great compression, which elongates them only 

82 




A HUGE HYDRAULIC PRESS 



The i2,ooo-ton pressure Whitworth Hydraulic Press, used for consolidating steel ingots for armour- 
plating. Water is forced into the ram cylinder at a pressure of three tons to the squarj inch. 
Notice the man to the left of the press. 



WORKSHOP MACHINERY 

slightly, though reducing their thickness considerably. The 
heating of a large plate takes from ten to twenty hours ; 
it is then ready to be placed between the jaws of the big 
press, which are about a foot wide. The plate is moved 
forward between the jaws after each stroke until the entire 
surface has been treated. At one stroke a 17-inch 
plate is reduced to 16 inches, and subsequent squeezings 
give it a final thickness of 14 inches. Its length has 
meanwhile increased from 16 to 18|^ feet, or in that pro- 
portion, while its breadth has remained practically un- 
altered. A simple sum shows that metal which originally 
occupied 32| cubic inches has now been compressed into 
31 cubic inches. This alteration being effected without 
any injury to the surface, a plate very tough inside and 
very hard outside is made. The plate is next reheated to 
1,350° F., and allowed to cool very gradually to a low 
temperature to "anneaP** it. Then once again the fur- 
naces are started to bring it back to 1,350°, when cold 
water is squirted all over the surface to give it a proper 
temper. If it bends and warps at all during this process, 
a slight reheating and a second treatment in the press 
restores its shape. 

The hydraulic press is also used for bending or stamp- 
ing plates in all manners of forms. You may see 8-inch 
steel slabs being quietly squeezed in a pair of huge dies 
till they have attained a semicircular shape, to fit 
them for the protection of a man-of-war's big -gun 
turret ; or thinner stuff having its ends turned over to 
make a flange ; or still slenderer metal stamped into the 
shape of a complete steel boat, as easily as the tinsmith 
stamps tartlet moulds. In another workshop a pair of 

^3 



MODERN MECHANISM 

massive jaws worked by water power are breaking up iron 
pigs into pieces suitable for the melting furnace. 

The manufacture of munitions of war also calls for the 
aid of this powerful ally. Take the field-gun and its 
ammunition. " The gun itself is a steel barrel, hydraulic- 
allv forged, and afterwards wire -wound; the carriage is 
built up of steel plates, flanged and shaped in hydraulic 
presses; the wheels have their naves composed of hydraulic- 
ally flanged and corrugated steel discs, and even the tyres 
are forced on cold by hydraulic tvre-setters, the rams of 
which are powerful enough to reduce the diameter of the 
welded tyre until the latter tightly nips the wheel. The 
shells for the gun are punched and drawn by powerful 
hydraulic presses, and the copper driving-bands are fixed 
on the projectiles in special hydraulic presses. Quick- 
firing cartridge-cases are capped, drawn, and headed by an 
hydraulic press, whose huge mass always impresses the 
uninitiated as absurdly out of proportion to the small size 
of the finished case, and finally the cordite firing charge 
is dependent on hydraulic presses for its density and 
shape.'' * 

The press for placing the " driving-band "" on a shell is 
particularly interesting. After the shell has been shaped 
and its exterior turned smooth and true, a groove is cut 
round it near the rear end. Into this groove a band of 
copper is forced to prevent the leakage of gas from the 
firing charge past the shell, and also to bite the rifling 
which imparts a rotatory motion to the shell. The press 
for performing the operation has six cylinders and rams 
arranged spoke-wise inside a massive steel ring ; the rams 
* Mr. A. F. Fetch in Cassier^g Magazine, 

84 



WORKSHOP MACHINERY 

carrying concave heads which, when the full stroke is 
made, meet at the centre so as to form a complete circle. 
^' Pressure is admitted,'' says Mr. Fetch, '' to the cylinders 
by copper pipes connected up to a circular distributing 
pipe. The press takes water from the 700-pounds main 
for the first |-inch of the stroke, and for the last |-inch 
water pressure at 3 tons per square inch is used. The 
total pressure on all the rams to band a 6-inch shell 
is only 600 tons, but for a 12-inch shell no less than 
2,800 tons is necessary.*" 

ELECTRIC TOOLS IN A SHIPYARD 

Of late years electricity has taken a very prominent 
part in workshop equipment, on account of the ease with 
which it can be applied to a machine, the freedom from 
belting and overhead gear which it gives, and its greater 
economy. In a lathe-shop, where only half the lathes may 
be in motion at a time, the shafting and the belts for the 
total number is constantly whirling, absorbing uselessly 
a lot of power. If, however, a separate motor be fitted to 
each lathe, the workman can switch it on and off at his 
pleasure. 

The New York Shipbuilding Company, a very modern 
enterprise, depends mainly on electrical power for driving 
its machinery, in preference to belting, compressed air, 
or water. Let us stroll through the various shops, and 
note the uses to which the current has been harnessed. 
Before entering, our attention is arrested by a huge gantry 
crane, borne by two columns which travel on rails. From 
the cross girder, or bridge, 88 feet long, hang two lift- 
ing magnets, worked by 25 h.-p. motors, which raise 

85 



MODERN MECHANISM 

the load at the rate of 20 feet per minute. Motors of 
equal power move the whole gantry along its rails over 
the great piles of steel plates and girders from which it 
selects victims to feed the maw of the shops. 

The main building is of enormous size, covering with 
its single roof no less than eighteen acres ! Just imagine 
four acres of skylights and two acres of windows, and you 
may be able to calculate the little glazier's bill that might 
result from a bad hailstorm. In this immense chamber 
are included the machine, boiler, blacksmith, plate, frame, 
pipe, and mould shops, the general storerooms, the build- 
ing ways, and outfitting slips. "The material which 
enters the plate and storage rooms at one end, does not 
leave the building until it goes out as a part of the 
completed ship for which it was intended, when the vessel 
is ready to enter service ; there are installed in one main 
building, and under one roof, all the material and 
machinery necessary for the construction of the largest 
ship known to commerce, and eight sets of ship-ways, 
built upon masonry foundations, covered by roofs of 
steel and glass, and spanned by cranes up to 100 tons 
lifting capacity, are practically as much a part of the 
immense main building as the boiler shop or machine 
shop." * 

A huge 100-ton crane of 121-foot span dominates the 

machine-shop and ship-ways at a height of 120 feet. It 

" toys with a big engine or boiler, picking it up when the 

riveters, caulkers, and fitters have done their work, and 

dropping it gently into the bowels of a partly-finished 

'^ vessel. A number of smaller cranes run about with their 

* Cassiers Magazine. 
86 



WORKSHOP MACHINERY 

loads. Those which handle plates are, like the big gantry 
already referred to, equipped with powerful electro-mag- 
nets which fix like leeches on the metal, and will not let 
go their hold until the current is broken by the pressing 
of a button somewhere on the bridge. Sometimes several 
plates are picked up at once, and then it is pretty to see 
how the man in charge drops them in succession, one here, 
another there, by merely opening and closing the switch very 
quickly, so that the plate furthest from the magnets falls 
before the magnetism has passed out of the nearer plates. 

Another interesting type is the extension-arm crane, 
which shoots out an arm between two pillars, grips some- 
thing, and pulls it back into the main aisle, down which 
it travels without impediment. 

On every side are fresh wonders. Here is an immense 
rolling machine, fed with plates 27 feet wide, which bends 
the If -inch thick metal as if it were so much pastry ; or 
turns over the edges neatly at the command of a 50 h.-p. 
motor. There we have an electric plate-planer scrap- 
ing the surface of a sheet half the length of a cricket 
pitch. As soon as a stroke is finished the bed reverses 
automatically, while the tool turns over to offer its edge 
to the metal approaching from the other side. All so 
quietly, yet irresistibly done ! 

Now mark these punches as they bite 1^-inch holes 
through steel plates over an inch thick, one every two 
seconds. A man cutting wads out of cardboard could 
hardly perform his work so quickly and well. Almost as 
hoiTibly resistless is the circular saw which eats its way 
quite unconcernedly through bars six inches square, or 
snips lengths off steel beams. 

87 



MODERN MECHANISM 

What is that strange-looking machine over there ? It 
has three columns which move on circular rails round a 
table in the centre. Up and down each column passes 
a stage caiTying with it a workman and an electric drill 
working four spindles. Look ! here comes a crane with 
a boiler shell, the plates of which have been bolted in 
position. The crane lets down its load, end-up, on to 
the table, and trots off, while the three workmen move 
their columns round till the twelve drills are opposite 
their work. Then whirr ! a dozen twisted steel points, 
ranged in three sets of four, one drill above the other, 
bite into the boiler plates, opening out holes at mathema- 
tically correct intervals all down the overlapping seam- 
plates. This job done, the columns move round the 
boiler, and their drills pierce it first near the lower 
edge, then near the upper. The crane returns, grips the 
cylinder, and bears it off to the riveters, who are waiting 
with their hydi^aulic presses to squeeze the rivets into the 
holes just made, and shape their heads into neat hemi- 
spheres. As it swings through the air the size of the 
boiler is dwarfed by its suri'oundings ; but if you had put 
a rule to it on the table you would have found that it 
measured 20 feet in diameter and as many in length. A 
few months hence furnaces will rage in its stomach, and 
cause it to force tons of steam into the mighty cylinders 
driving some majestic vessel across the Atlantic. 

We pass giant lathes busy on the propeller shafts, 
huge boring mills which slowly smooth the interior of a 
cylinder, planers which face the valve slides ; and we 
arrive, eye-weary, at the launching-ways where an ocean 
liner is being given her finishing touches. Then we begin 

S8 



WORKSHOP MACHINERY 

to moralise* That 600-foot floating palace is a concre- 
tion of parts, shaped, punched, cut, planed, bored, fixed 
by electricity. Where does man come in ? Well, he 
harnessed the current, he guided it, he said " Do this,^' 
and it did it. Does not that seem to be his fair share of 
the work ? 



89 



CHAFl'ER IV 
PORTABLE TOOLS 

•• T F the mountain won't come to Mahomet," says the 
I proverb, '• Mahomet must go to the mountain^ 

This is as true in the workshop as outside: — Maho- 
met being the tool, the mountain the work on which it 
must be used. With the increase in size of machinery and 
en^neerins: materiah methods half a century old do 
not, in many ca^es, suffice i especially at a time when 
commercial competition has gi'eatlv reduced the margin of 
profits formerly expected bv the manufacturer. 

To take the ca-e of a large shaft, which must have a 
slot cut along it on one side to accommodate the key- 
wedge, which holds an eccentric for moving the steam 
valves of a cylinder, or a screw-propeller, so that it can- 
not slip. The mass weighs, perhaps, twenty tons. One 
way of doing the job is to transport the shaft under 
a drill that will cut a hole at each end of the slot area, 
and then to turn it over to the planer for the inteimiediate 
metal to be scraped out. This is a very toilsome and 
expensive busine-s. entailing the use of costly machinery 
which might be doing more useful work, and the sacrifice 
of much valuable time. Inventors have therefore pro- 
duced portable tools which can perform work on big 
bodies just as efficiently as if it had been done by larger 

90 



PORTABLE TOOLS 

machinery, in a fraction of the time and at a greatly 
reduced cost. To quote an example, the cutting of a key- 
way of the kind just described by big machines would 
consume perhaps a whole day, whereas the light, portable, 
easily attached miller, now generally used, bites it out in 
ninety minutes. 

PNEUMATIC TOOLS 

The best known of these is the pneumatic hammer. It 
consists of a cylinder, inside which moves a solid piston 
having a stroke of from half an inch to six inches. Air 
is supplied through flexible tubing from a compressing 
pump worked by steam. The piston beats on a loose 
block of metal carried in the end of the tool, which does 
the actual striking. The piston suddenly decreases in 
diameter at about the centre of its length, leaving a 
shoulder on which air can work to effect the withdrawal 
stroke. By a very simple arrangement of air-ports the 
piston is made to act as its own valve. As the plane side 
of the piston has a greater area than that into which the 
piston-rod fits, the striking movement is much more 
violent than the return. Under a pressure of several 
hundreds of pounds to the square inch a pneumatic 
hammer delivers upwards of 7,000 blows per minute ; the 
quick succession of comparatively gentle taps having 
the effect of a much smaller number of heavier blows. 
For the flat hammer head can be substituted a curved die 
for riveting, or a chipping chisel, or a caulking iron, to 
close the seams of boilers. 

The riveter is peculiarly useful for ship and bridge- 
building work where it is impossible to apply an hydraulic 
tool. A skilled workman will close the rivet heads as fast 

91 



MODERN MECHANISM 

as his assistant can place them in their holes ; certainly in 
less than half the time needed for swing-hammer closing. 

Even more effective proportionately is the pneumatic 
chipper. The writer has seen one cut a strip off the edge 
of a half-inch steel plate at the rate of several inches a 
minute. To the uninitiated beholder it would seem 
impossible that a tool weighing less than two stone could 
thus force its way through solid metal. The speed of the 
piston is so high that, though it scales but a few pounds, 
its momentum is great enough to advance the chisel a 
fraction of an inch, and the individual advances, following 
one another with inconceivable rapidity, soon total up 
into a big cut. 

Automatic chisels are very popular with ornamental 
masons, as they lend themselves to the sculpturing of 
elaborate designs in stone and marble. 

Their principle, modified to suit work of another 
character, is seen in percussive rock drills, such as the 
Ingersoll Sergeant. In this case the piston and tool are 
solid, and the air is let into the cylinder by means of slide 
valves operated by tappets which the piston strikes dm^ing 
its movements. Some types of the rock-drill are con- 
trollable as to the length of their stroke, so that it can be 
shortened while the "entry"*' of the hole is being made 
and gradually increased as the hole deepens. For perpen- 
dicular boring the drill is mounted on a heavily w^eighted 
tripod, the inertia of which effectively damps all recoil from 
the shock of striking ; for horizontal work, and sometimes 
for vertical, the support is a pillar wedged between the 
walls of the tunnel, or shaft. An ingenious detail is the 
rifled bar w^hich causes the drill to rotate slightly on its axis 

92 



PORTABLE TOOLS 

between every two strokes, so that it may not jam. The 
drills are light enough to be easily erected and dismantled, 
and compact, so that they can be used in restricted and 
out-of-the way places, while their simplicity entails little 
special training on the part of the workman. With 
pneumatic and other power-drills the cost of piercing 
holes for explosive charges is reduced to less than one- 
quarter of that of "jumping'' with a crowbar and sledge- 
hammers. With the hand method two men are required, 
usually more ; one man to hold, guide, and turn the drill ; 
and the other, or others, to strike the blows with hammers. 
The machine, striking a blow far more rapidly than can 
be done by hand, reduces the number of operators to one 
man, and perhaps his helper. So durable is the metal of 
these wonderful little mechanisms that the delivery of 
360,000 blows daily for months, even though each is 
given with a force of perhaps half a ton, fails to wear 
them out ; or at the most only necessitates the renewal of 
some minor and cheap part. The debt that civilisation 
owes to the substitution of mechanical for hand labour will 
be fully understood by anyone who is conversant with the 
history of tunnel-driving and mining. 

Another application of pneumatics is seen in the device 
for cutting off the ends of stay bolts of locomotive 
boilers. It consists of a cylinder about fifteen inches in 
diameter, the piston of which operates a pair of large 
nippers capable of shearing half-inch bars. The whole 
apparatus weighs but three-quarters of a hundredweight, 
yet its power is such that it can trim bolts forty times as 
fast as a man working with hammer and cold-chisel, and 
more thoroughly. 

93 



MODERN MECHANISM 

Then there is the machine for breaking the short bolts 
which hold together the outer and inner shells of the 
water-jacket round a locomotive furnace. A threaded 
bar, along Avhich travels a nut, has a hook on its end to 
catch the bolt. The nut is screwed up to make the 
proper adjustment, and a pneumatic cylinder pulls on the 
hook with a force of many tons, easily shearing through 
the bolt. " ^ 

We must not forget the pneumatic borer for cutting 
holes in wood or metal, or enlarging holes already exist- 
ing. The head of the borer contains three little cylinders, 
set at an angle of 120% to rotate the drill, the 
valves opening automatically to admit air at very high 
pressures behind the pistons. Any carpenter can imagine 
the advantage of a drill which has merely to be forced 
against its work, the movement of a small lever by the 
thumb doing the rest ! 

Next on the list comes the pneumatic painter, which 
acts on much the same principle as the scent-spray. 
Mechanical painting first came to the fore in 1893, when 
the huge Chicago Exposition provided many acres of sur- 
faces which had to be protected from the weather or 
hidden from sight. The following description of one 
of the machines used to replace hand-work is given in 
Ca^sier's Magazine: "The paint is atomized and sprayed 
on to the work by a stream of compressed air. From a 
small air-compressor the air is led, through flexible hose, 
to a paint-tank, which is provided with an air-tight cover 
and clamping screws. The paint is contained in a pot 
which can be readily removed and replaced by another 
when a different colour is required. This arrangement of 

94 



PORTABLE TOOLS 

interchangeable tins is also important as facilitating easy 
cleaning. The container is furnished with a semi-rotary 
stiiTer, the spindle passing through a stuffing-box in the 
cover, and ending in a handle by which the whole thing 
complete may be carried about. The compressor is neces- 
sarily fixed or stationary, but the paint-tank, connected to 
it by the single air-hose, can be moved close to the work, 
while the length of hose from the tank to the nozzle gives 
the freedom of movement necessary. Air-pressure is 
admitted to the tank by a bottom valve, and forces 
the paint up an internal pipe and along a hose from the 
tank to the spraying nozzle, to which air-pressure is also 
led by a second hose. The nozzle is practically an in- 
jector of special form. The flow of paint at the nozzle is 
controlled by a small plug valve and spring lever, on 
which the operator keeps his thumb while working, and 
which, on release, closes automatically. When it is re- 
quired to change from one colour to another, or to use 
a different material, such as varnish, the can, previously 
in use, is removed, and air, or, if necessary, paraffin oil, is 
blown through the length of hose which supplies the 
paint until it is completely clean." The writer then men- 
tions as an instance of the machine's efficiency that it has 
covered a 30 feet by 8 feet boiler in less than an hour, 
and that at one large bridge yard a 70 feet by 6 feet 
girder with all its projecting parts was coated with boiled 
oil in two hours — a job which would have occupied a man 
with a brush a whole day to execute. Apart from saving- 
time, the machine produces a surface quite free from 
brush marks, and easily reaches surfaces in intricate 
mouldings which are difficult to get at with a brush. 

95 



MODERN MECHANISM 

The pneumatic sand-jet is used for a variety of purposes : 
for cleaning off old paint, or the weathered surface of 
stonework ; for polishing up castings and forgings after 
they have been brazed. At the cycle factory you will 
find the sand-jet hard at work on the joints of cycle 
frames, which must be cleared of all roughness before 
they are fit for the enameller. The writer, a few days 
before penning these lines, watched a jet removing London 
grime from the face of a large hotel. Down a side street 
stood a steam-engine busily compressing air, which was 
led by long pipes to the jet, situated on some lofty 
scaffolding. The rapidity with which the flying grains 
scoured off smoke deposits attracted the notice of a large 
crowd, which gazed with upturned heads at the whitened 
stones. A peculiarity about the jet is that it proves 
much more effective on hard material than on soft, as the 
latter, by offering an elastic surface, robs the sand of its 
cutting power. 

After merely mentioning the pneumatic rammer for 
forcing sand into foundry moulds, we pass to the 
pneumatic sand-papering machine, which may be described 
briefly as a revolving disc carrying a circle of sand-paper 
on its face revolved between guards which keep it flat to 
its work. The disc flies round many hundreds of times 
per minute, rapidly wearing down the fibrous surface of 
the wood it touches. When the coarse paper has done 
its work a finely-grained cloth is substituted to produce 
the finish needful for painting. 



96 



CHAPTER V 

THE PEDRAIL: A WALKING 
STEAM-ENGINE 

HAVE you ever watched carefully a steam-roller's 
action on the road when it is working on newly 
laid stones ? If you have, you noticed that the 
stones, gravel, etc., in front of the roller moved with 
a wave-like motion, so that the engine was practically 
climbing a never-ending hill. No wonder then that the 
mechanism of such a machine needs to be very strong, 
and its power multiplied by means of suitable gearing. 

Again, suppose that an iron-tyred vehicle, travelling at 
a rapid pace, meets a large stone, what happens ? Either 
the stone is forced into the ground or the wheel must 
rise over it. In either case there will be a jar to the 
vehicle and a loss of propulsive power. Do not all 
cyclists know the fatigue of riding over a bumpy road 
— fatigue to both muscles and nerves ? 

As regards motors and cycles the vibration trouble has 
been largely reduced by the employment of pneumatic 
tyres, which lap over small objects, and when they strike 
large ones minimise the shock by their buffer -like 
nature. Yet there is still a great loss of power, and if 
pneumatic-tyred vehicles suffer, what must happen to tlie 
solid, snorting, inelastic traction-engine ? On hard roads 
G 97 



MODERN MECHANISM 

it rattles and bumps along, pulverising stones, crushing 
the surface. When soft ground is encountered, in sink 
the wheels, because their bearing surface must be in- 
creased until it is sufficient to carry the engine's weight. 
But by the time that they are six inches below the 
surface there will be a continuous vertical belt of earth 
six inches deep to be crushed down incessantly by their 
advance. 

How much more favourably situated is the railway 
locomotive or truck. Their wheels touch metal at a 
point but a fraction of an inch in length; consequently 
their is nothing to hamper their progression. So great 
is the difference between the rail and the road that 
experiment has shown that, whereas a pull of from 8 to 
10 lbs. will move a ton on rails, an equal weight requires 
a tractive force of 50 to 100 lbs. on the ordinary turnpike. 

In order to obviate this great wastage of power, 
various attempts have been made to provide a road 
locomotive with means for laying its own rail track as 
it proceeds. About forty years ago Mr. Boy dell con- 
structed a wheel which took its own rail with it, the 
rails being arranged about the wheel like a hexagon 
round a circle, so that as the wheel moved it always 
rested on one of the hexagon's sides, itself flat on the 
ground. This device had two serious drawbacks. In 
the first place, the plates made a rattling noise which 
has been compared to the reports of a Maxim gun ; 
secondly, though the contrivance acted fairly well on 
level ground, it failed when uneven surfaces were en- 
countered. Thus, if a brick lay across the path, one 
end of a plate rested on the brick, the pother on the 

98 



A WALKING STEAM-ENGINE 

ground behind, and the unsupported centre had to carry 
a sudden, severe strain. Furthermore, the plates, being 
connected at the angles of the hexagon, could not tilt 
sideways, with the result that breakages were frequent. 

Of late years another inventor, Mr. J. B. Diplock, has 
come forward with an invention which bids fair to revolu- 
tionise heavy road traffic. At present, though it has 
reached a practical stage and undergone many tests 
satisfactorily, it has not been made absolutely perfect, 
for the simple reason that no great invention jumps to 
finality all at once. Are not engineers still improving 
the locomotive ? 

The Pedrail, as it has been named, signifies a rail 
moving on feet. Mr. Diplock, observing that a horse 
has for its weight a tractive force much in excess of the 
traction-engine, took a hint from nature, and conceived 
the idea of copying the horse's foot action. The reader 
must not imagine that here is a return to the abortive 
and rather ludicrous attempts at a walking locomotive 
made many years ago, when some engineers considered 
it proper that a railway engine should be propelled by 
legs. Mr. Diplock's device not merely propels, but also 
steps, Le. selects the spot on the ground which shall be 
the momentary point at which propulsive force shall 
be exerted. To make this clearer, consider the action 
of a wheel. First, we will suppose that the spokes, any 
number you please, are connected at their outer ends by 
flat plates. As each angle is passed the wheel falls flop 
on to the next plate. The greater the number of the 
spokes, the less will be each successive jar (or step) ; and 
consequently the perfect wheel is theoretically one in 

99 



MODERN MECHANISM 

which the sides have been so much multiplied as to be 
infinitely short. 

A horse has practically two wheels, its front legs one, 
its back legs the other. The shoulder and hip joints 
form the axles, and the legs the spokes. As the animal 
pulls, the leg on the ground advances at the shoulder past 
the vertical position, and the horse would fall forwards 
were it not for the other leg which has been advanced 
simultaneously. Each step corresponds to our many-sided 
wheel falling on to a flat side — and the " hammer, ham- 
mer, hammer on the hard high road**^ is the horsey 
counterpart of the metallic rattle. 

On rough ground a horse has a great advantage over 
a wheeled tractor, because it can put its feet down on the 
top of objects of different elevations, and still pull. A 
wheel cannot do this, and, as we have seen, a loss of power I 
results. Our inventor, therefore, created in his pedrail « 
a compromise between the railway smoothness and ease of 
running and the selective and accommodating powers of 
a quadruped. 

We must now plunge into the mechanical details of the 
pedrail, which is, strictly speaking, a term confined to 
the wheel alone. Our illustration will aid the reader to 
follow the working of the various parts. 

In a railway we have {a) sleepers, on the ground, 
(6) rails attached to the sleepers, {c) wheels rolling over 
the rails. In the pedrail the order, reckoning upwards, 
is altered. On the ground is the ped^ or movable sleeper, 
carrying wheels, over which a rail attached to the moving 
vehicle glides continuously. The principle is used by 
anyone who puts wooden rollers down to help him move 
heavy furniture about. 

lOO 



A WALKING STEAM-ENGINE 

Of course, the peds cannot be put on the ground and 
left behind ; they must accompany their rollers and rails. 
We will endeavour to explain in simple words how this is 
effected. 

To the axles of the locomotive is attached firmly a flat, 
vertical plate, parallel to the sides of the fire-box. 
Pivoted to it, top and bottom, at their centres, are two 
horizontal rocking arms ; and these have their extremities 
connected by two bow-shaped bars, or cams, their convex 
edges pointing outwards, away from the axle. Powerful 
springs also join the rocking arms, and tend to keep them 
in a horizontal position. Thus we have a powerful frame, 
which can oscillate up and down at either end. The 
bottom arm is the rail on which the whole weight of the 
axle rests. 

The rotating and moving parts consist of a large, flat, 
circular case, the sides of which are a few inches apart. 
Its circumference is pierced by fourteen openings, pro- 
vided with guides, to accommodate as many short sliding 
spokes, which are in no way attached to the main axle. 
Each spoke is shaped somewhat like a tuning-fork. In 
the V is a roller- wheel, and at the tip is a " ped,"'*' or foot. 
As the case revolves, the tuning-fork spokes pass, as it 
were, with a leg on each side of the framework referred to 
above ; the wheel of each spoke being the only part which 
comes into contact with the frame. Strong springs hold 
the spokes and rollers normally at an equal distance from 
the wheel's centre. 

It must now be stated that the object of the framework 
is to thrust the rollers outwards as they approach tlie 
ground, and slide them below the rail. The side-pieces of 

lOI 



MODERN MECHANISM 

the frame are, as will be noticed (see Fig. 3), eccentric, 
i.e, points on their surfaces are at different distances from 
the axle centre. This is to meet the fact that the dis- 
tance from the axle to the ground is greater in an oblique 
direction than it is vertically, and therefore for three 
spokes to be carrying the weight at once, two of them must 
be more extended than the third. So then a spoke is 
moved outward by the frame till its roller gets under the 
rail, and as it passes off it it gradually slides inwards 
again. 

It will be obvious to the reader that, if the " peds '' 
were attached inflexibly to the ends of their spokes they 
would strike the ground at an angle, and, of course, be 
badly strained. Now, Mr. Diplock meant his " peds " to 
be as like feet as possible, and come down Jlat. He 
therefore furnished them with ankles, that is, ball-and- 
socket joints, so that they could move loosely on their 
spokes in all directions ; and as such a contrivance must 
be protected from dust and dirt, the inventor produced 
what has been called a "crustacean joint,"' on account of 
the resemblance it bears to the overlapping armour-plates 
of a lobster's tail. The plates, which suggest very thin 
quoits, are made of copper, and can be renewed at small 
cost when badly worn. An elastic spring collar at the 
top takes up all wear automatically, and renders the plates 
noiseless. This detail cost its inventor much work. The 
first joint made represented an expenditure of £6 ; but 
now, thanks to automatic machinery, any number can be 
turned out at 3s. 6d. each. 

A word about the feet. A wheel has fourteen of these. 
They are eleven inches in diameter at the tread, and soled 

102 



4 



A WALKING STEAM-ENGINE 

with rubber in eight segments, with strips of wood between 
the segments to prevent suction in clay soil. The segments 
are held together by a malleable cast-iron ring around the 
periphery of the feet and a tightening core in the centre. 
These wearing parts, being separate from the rest of the 
foot, are easily and cheaply renewed, and repairs can 




Fig. 3 

be quickly effected, if necessary, when on the road. The 
surface in contact with the ground being composed of the 
three substances — metal, wood, and rubber, which all take 
a bearing, provides a combination of materials adapted to 
the best adhesion and wear on any class of road, or even 
on no road at all. 

Motive power is transmitted by the machinery to the 

103 



MODERN MECHANISM 

wheel axle, from that to the casing, from the casing to 
the sliding spokes. As there are alternately two and 
three feet simultaneously in contact with the ground, the 
power of adhesion is very great— much greater than that 
of an ordinary traction-engine. This is what Professor 
Hele-Shaw says in a report on a pedrail tractor: "The 
weight of the engine is spread over no less than twelve feet, 
each one of which presses upon the ground with an area 
immensely greater— probably as much as ten times greater 
— than that of all the wheels (of an ordinary traction- 
engine) taken together on a hard road. Upon a soft 
road all comparison between wheels and the action of 
these feet ceases. The contact of each of the feet of the 
Pedrail is absolutely free from all slipping action, and 
attains the absolute ideal of working, being merely placed 
in position without sliding to take up the load, and then 
lifted up again without any sliding to be carried to a new 
position on the road.'' 

It is necessary that the feet should come down flat on 
the ground. If they struck it at all edgeways they would 
" sprain their ankles '' ; otherwise, probably break off at 
the ball joint. Mechanism was, therefore, introduced by 
which the feet would be turned over as they approached 
the ground, and be held at the proper angle ready for the 
" step.'' Without the aid of a special diagram it would 
be difficult to explain in detail how this is managed ; and 
it must suffice to say that the chief feature is a friction- 
clutch worked by the roller of the foot's spoke. 

To the onlooker the manner in which the pedrail crawls 
over obstacles is almost weird. The writer was shown a 
small working model of a pedrail, propelled along a board 

104 



A WALKING STEAM-ENGINE 

covered with bits of cork, wood, etc. The axle of the 
wheel scarcely moved upwards at all, and had he not 
actually seen the obstacles he would have been inclined 




Fig. 4 

to doubt their existence. An ordinary wheel of equal 
diameter took the obstructions with a series of bumps 
and bounds that made the contrast very striking. 

An extreme instance of the pedraiPs capacity would be 
afforded by the ascent of a flight of steps (see Fig. 4). 

105 



MODERN MECHANISM 

In such a case the three "peds"" carrying the weight of an 
axle would not be on the same level. That makes no 
difference, because the frame merely tilts on its top and 
bottom pivots, the front of the rail rising to a higher 
level than the back end, and the back spokes being pro- 
jected by the rail much further than those in front, so 
that the engine is simply levered over its rollers up an 
inclined plane. Similarly, in descending, the front spokes 
are thrust out the furthest, and the reverse action takes 
place. 

With so many moving parts everything must be well 
lubricated, or the wear would soon become serious. The 
feet are kept properly greased by being filled with a 
mixture of blacklead and grease of suitable quality, which 
requires renewal at long intervals only. The sliding 
spokes, rollers, and friction-clutches are all lubricated from 
one central oil-chamber, through a beautiful system of 
oil-tubes, which provides a circulation of the oil through- 
out all the moving parts. The central oil-chamber is 
filled from one orifice, and holds a sufficient supply of oil 
for a long journey. 

We may now turn for a moment from the pedrail itself 
to the vehicles to which it is attached. Here, again, we 
are met by novelties, for in his engines Mr. Diplock has 
so arranged matters, that not only can both front and 
back pairs of wheels be used as drivers, but both also 
take part in the steering. As may be imagined, many 
difficulties had to be surmounted before this innovation 
was complete. But that it was worth while is evident 
from the small space in which a double-steering tractor 
can tm-n, thanks to both its axles being movable, and 

io6 



A WALKING STEAM-ENGINE 

from the increased power. Another important feature 
must also be noticed, viz. that the axles can both tip 
vertically, so that when the front left wheel is higher 
than its fellow, the left back wheel may be lower than 
the right back wheel. In shorty Jlea:ibility and power are 
the ideals which Mr. Diplock has striven to reach. How 
far he has been successful may be gathered from the 
reports of experts. Professor Hele-Shaw, F.R.s.5 says: 
"The Pedrail constitutes, in my belief, the successful 
solution of a walking machine, which, whilst obviating the 
chief objections to the ordinary wheel running upon the 
road, can be made to travel anywhere where an ordinary 
wheel can go, and in many places where it cannot. At 
the same time it has the mechanical advantages which 
have made the railway system such a phenomenal success. 
It constitutes, in my belief, the solution of one of the 
most difficult mechanical problems, and deserves to be 
considered as an invention quite apart from any particular 
means by which it is actuated, whether it is placed upon 
a self-propelled carriage or a vehicle drawn by any agency, 
mechanical or otherwise. . . . The way in which all four 
wheels are driven simultaneously so as to give the 
maximum pulling effect by means of elastic connection 
is in itself sufficient to mark the engine as a most valuable 
departure from common practice. Hitherto this driving 
of four wheels has never been successfully achieved, partly 
because of the difficulty of turning the steering-wheels, 
and partly because, until the present invention of Mr. 
Diplock, the front and hind wheels would act against each 
other, a defect at first experienced and overcome by the 
inventor in his first engine." 

107 



MODERN MECHANISM 

On January 8th, 1902, Mr. Diplock tried an engine 
fitted with two ordinary wheels behind and two pedrails 
in front. The authority quoted above was present at the 
trials, and his opinion will therefore be interesting. "The 
points which struck me immediately were (1) the marvel- 
lous ease with which it started into action, (2) the little 
noise with which it worked. . . . Another thing which I 
noticed was the difference in the behaviour of the feet and 
wheels. The feet did not in any way seem to affect the 
surface of the road. Throwing down large stones the 
size of the fist into their path, the feet simply set them- 
selves to an angle in passing over the stones, and did not 
crush them ; whereas, the wheel coming after inva^riably 
crushed the stones, and, moreover, distorted the road 
surface. 

"Coming to the top of the hill, I made the Pedrail 
walk first over 3-inch planks, then 6-inch, and finally over 
a 9-inch balk. . . . One could scarcely believe, on wit- 
nessing these experiments, that the whole structure was 
not permanently distorted and strained, whereas it was 
evidently within the limits of play allowed by the 
mechanism. As a proof of this the Diplock engine 
walked down to the works, and I then witnessed its ascent 
of a lane, beside the engineering works, which had 
ruts eight or ten inches deep, and was a steep slope. 
This lane was composed in places of the softest mud, and 
whereas the wheels squeezed out the ground in all direc- 
tions, the feet of the Pedrails set themselves at the angles 
of the rut where it was hard, or walked through the soft 
and yielding mud without making the slightest disturb- 
ance of the surrounding ground. ... I came away from 

io8 



A WALKING STEAM-ENGINE 

that trial with the firm conviction that I had seen what I 
believe to be the dawn of a new era in mechanical trans- 
port;' 

Mr. Diplock does not regard the pedrail as an end in 
itself so much as a means to an end, viz. the development 
of road-borne traffic. For very long distances which 
must be covered in a minimum of time the railway v/ill 
hold its own. But there is a growing feeling that unless 
the railways can be fed by subsidiary methods of trans- 
port more effectively than at present, and unless remote 
country districts, whither it would not pay to carry even a 
light railway, are brought into closer touch with the 
busier parts, our communications cannot be considered 
satisfactory, and we are not getting the best value out of 
our roads. For many classes of goods cheapness of trans- 
portation is of more importance than speed; witness the 
fact that coal is so often sent by canal rather than by rail. 

Here, then, is the chance for the pedrail tractor and its 
long train of vehicles fitted with pedrail wheels, which 
will tend to improve the road surfaces they travel over. 
Mr, Diplock sets out in his interesting book, A New 
System of Heavy Goods Transport on Common Roads^ 
a scheme for collecting goods from " branch " routes on to 
" main " routes, where a number of cars will be coupled 
up and towed by powerful tractors. With ordinary four- 
wheeled trucks it is difficult to take a number round a 
sharp corner, since each truck describes a more sudden 
circle than its predecessor, the last often endeavouring to 
climb the pavement. Four-wheeled would therefore be 
replaced by two-wheeled trucks, provided with special 
couplings to prevent the cars tilting, while allowing them 

109 



MODERN MECHANISM 

to turn. Cars so connected would follow the same track 
round a curve. 

The body of the car would be removable, and of a 
standard size. It could be attached to a simple horse 
frame for transport into the fields. There the farmer 
would load his produce, and when the body was full it 
would be returned to the road, picked up by a crane 
attached to the tractor, swuno; on to its caiTiao-e and 
wheels, and taken away to join other cars. By making 
the bodies of such dimensions as to fit three into an 
ordinary railway truck, they could be entrained easily. 
On reaching their destination another tractor would lift 
them out, fit them to wheels, and trundle them off to the 
consumer. By this method there would be no " breaking 
bulk "' of goods required from the time it was first loaded 
till it was exposed in the market for sale. 

These things are, of course, in the future. Of more 
present importance is the fact that the War Office has 
from the first taken great interest in the new invention, 
which promises to be of value for military transport over 
ground either rough or boggy. Trials have been made 
by the authorities with encouraging results. That daring 
^vriter, Mr. H. G. Wells, has in his Land Ironclads 
pictured the pedrail taking an offensive part in warfare. 
Huge steel-plated forts, mounted on pedi^ails, and full of 
heavy artillery and machine guns, sweep slowly across the 
country towards where the enemy has entrenched himself. 
The forts are impervious alike to shell and bullet, but as 
they cross ditch or hillock in their gigantic stride, their 
artillery works havoc among their opponents, who are 
finally forced to an unconditional surrender. 



A WALKING STEAM-ENGINE 

Even if the pedrail is not made to carry weapons of 
destruction, we can, after our experiences with horseflesh 
in the Boer War, understand how important it may be- 
come for commissariat purposes. The feats which it has 
already performed mark it as just the locomotive to tackle 
the rough country in which baggage trains often find 
themselves. 

To conclude with a more peaceful use for it. When 
fresh country is opened up, years must often pass before 
a proper high road can be made, yet there is great need 
of an organised system of transport. Whither ordinary 
traction-engines, or carts, even horses, could scarcely 
penetrate, the pedrail tractor, thanks to its big, flat 
feet, which give it, as someone has remarked, the appear- 
ance of "a cross between a traction-engine and an 
elephant,"'' will be able to push its way at the forefront 
of advancing civilisation. 

At home we shall have good reason to welcome the 
pedrail if it frees us from those terrible corrugated tracks 
so dreaded by the cyclist, and to bless it if it actually 
beats our roads down into a greater smoothness than they 
now can boast. 



Ill 



CHAPTER VI 
INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES 

OIL ENGINES ENGINES WORKED WITH PRODUCER GAS BLAST 

FURNACE GAS ENGINES 

IF carbon and oxygen be made to combine chemically, 
the process is accompanied by the phenomenon called 
heat. If heat be applied to a liquid or gas in a 
confined space it causes a violent separation of its 
molecules, and power is developed. 

In the case of a steam-engine the fuel is coal (carbon 
in a more or less pure form), the fluid, water. By 
burning the fuel under a boiler, a gas is formed which, 
if confined, rapidly increases the pressure on the walls 
of the confining vessel. If allowed to pass into a cylinder, 
the molecules of steam, struggling to get as far as 
possible from one another, will do useful work on a 
piston connected by rods to a revolving crank. 

We here see the combustion of fuel external to the 
cylinder, i.e. under the boiler, and the fuel and fluid kept 
apart out of actual contact. In the gas or oil-vapour 
engine the fuel is brought into contact with the fluid 
which does the work, mixed with it, and burnt inside 
the cylinder. Therefore these engines are termed internal 
combustion engines. 

Supposing that a little gunpowder were placed in a 

112 



INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES 

cylinder, of which the piston had been pushed almost as 
far in as it would go, and that the powder were fired by 
electricity. The charcoal would unite with the oxygen 
contained in the saltpetre and form a large volume of 
gas. This gas, being heated by the ignition, would in- 
stantaneously expand and drive out the piston violently. 

A very similar thing happens at each explosion of an 
internal combustion engine. Into the cylinder is dra^vn 
a charge of gas, containing carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, 
and also a proportion of air. This charge is squeezed by 
the inward movement of the piston ; its temperature is 
raised by the compression, and at the proper moment 
it is ignited. The oxygen and carbon seize on one 
another and biu-n (or combine), the heat being increased 
by the combustion of the hydrogen. The air atoms are 
expanded by the heat, and work is done on the piston. 
But the explosion is much gentler than in the case of 
gunpowder. 

During recent years the internal combustion engine has 
been making rapid progress, ousting steam power from 
many positions in which it once reigned supreme. We 
see it propelling vehicles along roads and rails, driving 
boats through the water, and doing duty in generating 
stations and smelting works to turn dynamos or drive 
air-pumps — not to mention the thousand other forms of 
usefulness which, were they enumerated here, would fill 
several pages. 

A decade ago an internal combustion engine of 100 h.p. 
was a wonder ; to-day single engines are built to develop 
3,000 h.p., and in a few years even this enormous capacity 
will doubtless be increased. 

H 113 



MODERN MECHANISM 

It is interesting to note that the rival systems — gas 
and steam — were being experimented with at the same 
time by Robert Street and James Watt respectively. 
While Watt applied his genius to the useful development 
of the power latent in boiling water. Street, in 1794, 
took out letters patent for an engine to be worked by 
the explosions caused by vaporising spirits of turpentine 
on a hot metal surface, mixing the vapour with air in a 
cylinder, exploding the mixture, and using the explosion 
to move a piston. In his, and subsequent designs, the 
mixture was pumped in from a separate cylinder under 
slight pressure. Lenoir, in 1860, conceived the idea of 
making the piston suclc in the charge, so abolishing the 
need of a separate pump ; and many engines built under 
his patents were long in use, though, if judged by modern 
standards, they were very wasteful of fuel. Two years 
later Alphonse Beau de Rochas proposed the further 
improvement of utilising the cylinder, not only as a 
suction pump, but also as a compressor; since he saw 
that a compressed mixture would ignite very much 
more readily than one not under pressure. Rochas held 
the secret of success in his grasp, but failed to turn it 
to practical account. The "Otto cycle,"' invented by 
Dr. Otto in 1876, is really only Rochas's suggestion 
materialised. The large majority of internal combustion 
engines employ this " cycle *''* of operations, so we may 
state its exact meaning : — 

(1) A mixture of explosive gas and air is drawn into 
the cylinder by the piston as it passes outwards {i,e, in 
the direction of the crank), through the inlet valve. 

(2) The valve closes, and the returning piston com- 
presses the mixture. 

114 



INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES 

(3) The mixture is fired as the piston commences its 
second journey outwards, and gives the "power" stroke. 

(4) The piston, returning again, ejects the exploded 
mixture through the outlet or exhaust valve, which 
began to open towards the end of the third stroke. 

Briefly stated, the " cycle "" is — suction, compression, ex- 
plosion, expulsion; one impulse being given during each 
cycle, which occupies two complete revolutions of the fly- 
wheel. Since the first, second, and third operations all 
absorb energy, the wheel must be heavy enough to store 
sufficient momentum during the "power **' stroke to carry 
the piston through all its three other duties. 

Year by year, the compression of the mixture has been 
increased, and improvements have been made in the 
methods of governing the speed of the engine, so that 
it may be suitable for work in which the " load '' is con- 
stantly varying. By doubling, trebling, and quadrupling 
the cylinders the drive is rendered more and more steady, 
and the elasticity of a steam-engine more nearly ap- 
proached. 

The internal combustion engine has "arrived" so late 
because in the earlier part of last century conditions were 
not favourable to its development. Illuminating gas had 
not come into general use, and such coal gas as was made 
was expensive. The great oil-fields of America and Russia 
had not been discovered. But while the proper fuels for 
this type of motor were absent, coal, the food of the 
steam-engine, lay ready to hand, and in forms which, 
though useless for many purposes, could be advantageously 
burnt under a boiler. 

Now the situation has altered. Gas is abundant ; and 

115 



MODERN MECHANISM 

oil of the right sort costs only a few pence a gallon. 
Inventors and manufacturers have grasped the oppor- 
tunity. To-day over SjOOOjOOO h.p. is developed con- 
tinuously by the internal combustion engine. 

Steam would not have met so formidable a rival had 
not that rival had some great advantages to offer. What 
are these? Well, first enter a factory driven by steam 
power, and carefully note what you see. Then visit a 
large gas- or oil-engine plant. You will conclude that the 
latter scores on many points. There are no stokers re- 
quired. No boilers threaten possible explosions. The 
heat is less. The dust and dirt are less. The space 
occupied by the engines is less. There is no noisome 
smoke to be led away through tall and expensive chimneys. 
If work is stopped for an hour or a day, there are no fires 
to be banked or drawn — involving waste in either case. 

Above all, the gas engine is more efficient, or, if you 
like to express the same thing in other words, more 
economical. If you use only one horse-power for one 
hour a day, it doesn'^t much matter whether that horse- 
power-hour costs 4d. or 5d. But in a factory where a 
thousand horse-power is required all day long, the extra 
pence make a big total. If, therefore, the proprietor finds 
that a shilling''s-worth of gas or oil does a quarter as 
much work again as a shilling'*s-worth of coal, and that 
either form of fuel is easily obtained, you may be sure 
that, so far as economy is concerned, he will make up his 
mind without difficulty as to the class of engine to be 
employed. A pound of coal burnt under the best type 
of steam-engine gives but 10 per cent, of its heating 
valuQ in useful work. A good oil-engine gives 20-25 per 

ii6 



INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES 

cent., and in special types the figures are said to rise to 
35-40 per cent. We may notice another point, viz. that, 
while a steam-engine must be kept as hot as possible to be 
efficient, an internal combustion engine must be cooled. 
In the former case no advantage, beyond increased effici- 
ency, results. But in the latter the water passed round 
the cylinders to take up the surplus heat has a value for 
warming the building or for manufacturing processes. 

Putting one thing with another, experts agree that 
the explosion engine is the prime mover of the future. 
Steam has apparently been developed almost to its limit. 
Its rival is but half-grown, though already a giant. 

Some internal combustion engines use petroleum as 
their fuel, converting it into gas before it is mixed with 
air to form the charge ; others use coal-gas drawn from 
the lighting mains ; "poor gas**' made in special plants for 
power purposes ; or natural gas issuing from the ground. 
Natural gas occurs in very large quantities in the United 
States, where it is conveyed through pipes under pressure 
for hundreds of miles, and distributed among factories 
and houses for driving machinery, heating, and cooking. 
In England and Europe the petroleum engine and coal- 
gas engine have been most utilised ; but of late the 
employment of smelting-furnace gases — formerly blown 
into the air and wasted — and of " producer ^' gas has come 
into great favour with manufacturers. The latest develop- 
ment is the "suction'** gas engine, which makes its own 
gas by drawing steam and air through glowing fuel during 
the suction stroke. 

We will consider the various types under separate 
headings devoted 

(1) To the oil-fuel engine, 

117 



MODERN MECHANISM 

(2) The producer-gas engine and the suction-gas engine, 

(3) Blast-furnace gas engines, 

with reference to the installations used in connection with 
the last two. 

All explosion engines (excepting the very small 
types employed on motor cycles) have a water-jacket 
round the cylinders to absorb some of the heat of combus- 
tion, which would otherwise render the metal so hot as to 
make proper lubrication impossible, and also w^ould un- 
duly expand the incoming charge of gas and air before 
compression. The ideal engine w^ould take in a full charge 
of cold mixture, which would receive no heat from the 
walls of the cylinder, and during the explosion would pass 
no heat through the walls. In other words, the ideal 
metal for the cylinders would be one absolutely non- 
receptive of heat. In the absence of this, engineers are 
obliged to make a compromise, and to keep the cylinder 
at such a temperature that it can be lubricated fittingly, 
while not becoming so cold as to absorb too much of the 
heat of explosion. 

OIL ENGINES 

These fall into two main classes : — 

{a) Those using light, volatile, mineral oils — such as 
petrol and benzoline — and alcohol, a vegetable product. 

{h) Those using heavy oils, such as paraffin oil (kerosene) 
and the denser constituents of rock-oil left in the stills 
after the kerosene has been driven off. American petro- 
leum is rich in burning-oil and petrol ; Russian in the 
very heavy residue, called astakti. Given the proper 
apparatus for vaporisation, mineral oils of any density can 
be used in the explosion engine. 



INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES 

The first class is so well known as the mover of motor 
vehicles and boats that we need not linger here on it. 
It may, however, be remarked that engines using the 
easily- vaporised oils are not of large powers, since the fuel 
is too expensive to make them valuable for installations 
where large units of power are needed. They have been 
adopted for locomotives on account of their lightness, and 
the ease with which they can be started. Petrol vaporises 
at ordinary temperatures, so that air merely passed over 
the spirit absorbs sufficient vapour to form an explosive 
mixture. The "jet" carburetter, now generally employed, 
makes the mixture more positive by atomising the spirit 
as it passes through a very fine nozzle into the mixing 
chamber under the suction from the cylinder. On 
account of their small size spirit engines work at very 
high speeds as compared with the large oil or gas engine. 
Thus, while a 2,000 h.p. Korting gas engine develops 
full power at eighty-five revolutions a minute, the tiny 
cycle motor must be driven at 2,000 to 3,000 revolu- 
tions. Speaking generally, as the size increases the speed 
decreases. 

Of heavy oil engines there are some dozens of well- 
tried types. They differ in their methods of effecting the 
following operations. 

1. The feeding of the oil fuel to the engine. 

2. The conversion of the oil into vapour. 

3. The ignition of the charge. 

4. The governing of speed. 

All these engines have a vaporiser, or chamber wherein 
the oil is converted into gas by the action of heat. When 
starting-up the engine, this chamber must be heated by a 

119 



MODERN MECHANISM 

specially designed lamp, similar in principle to that used 
by house painters for burning old paint off wood or 
metal. 

Let us now consider the operations enumerated above 
in some detail. 

1. The oil supply. Fuel is transferred from the storage 
tank to the vaporiser either by the action of gi'avity 
through a regulating device to prevent "flooding,"'' or 
by meaus of a small pump, or by the suction of the 
piston, which lifts the liquid. In some engines the air 
and gas enter the cylinder through a single valve ; in 
others through separate valves. 

2. Vaporisation. As already remarked, the vaporising 
chamber must be heated to start the engine. When work 
has begun the lamp m.ay be removed if the engine is so 
designed that the chamber stores up sufficient heat in its 
walls from each explosion to vaporise the charge for the 
next power stroke. The Crossley engine has a lamp con- 
tinuously burning ; the Homsby-Ackroyd depends upon 
the storage of heat from explosions in a chamber opening 
into the cylinder. The best designs are fahly equally 
divided between the two systems. 

3. Ignition of the compressed charge is effected in one 
of four ways : by bringing the charge, at the end of 
the compression stroke, into contact with a closed tube 
projecting from the cylinder and heated outside by a con- 
tinuously burning lamp ; by the heat stored in some part 
of the combustion chamber {ix, that portion of the 
cylinder not swept by the piston) ; by an electric spark ; 
or by the mere heat of compression. The second and third 
methods are confined to comparatively few makes; and 

120 



INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES 

the Diesel Oil Engine (of which more presently) has a 
monopoly of the fourth. 

4. Governing, All engines which turn machinery doing 
intermittent work — such as that of a sawmill, or electric 
generating plant connected with a number of motors — must 
be very carefully guarded from over-ininning. Imagine the 
effect on an engine which is putting out its whole strength 
and getting full charges of fuel, if the belt suddenly 
slipped off* and it were '' allowed its head/' A burst fly- 
wheel would be only one of the results. The steam-engine 
is easily controlled by the centrifugal action of a ball- 
governor, which, as the speed increases, gradually spreads 
its balls and lifts a lever connected with a valve in the 
steam supply pipe. Owing to its elastic nature, steam 
will do useful work if admitted in small quantities to 
the cylinder. But a difficulty arises with the internal 
combustion engine if the supply of mixture is similarly 
throttled, because a loss of quantity means loss of com- 
pression and bad ignition. Many oil engines are there- 
fore governed by apparatus which, when the speed exceeds 
a certain limit, cuts off* the supply altogether, either by 
throwing the oil-pump temporarily out of action, or by 
lifting the exhaust valve so that the movement of the 
piston causes no suction— the " hit-and-miss '*' method, as 
it is called. 

The means adopted depends on the design of the 
engine ; and it must be said that, though all the devices 
commonly used effect their purpose, none are perfect; 
this being due rather to the nature of an internal explo- 
sion engine than to any lack of ingenuity on the part of 
inventors. The steadiest running is probably given with 



MODERN MECHANISM 

the throttle control, which diminishes the supply. On 
motor cars this method has practically ousted the " hit- 
and-miss "'' governed exhaust valve ; but in stationary 
engines we more commonly find the speed controlled by 
robbing the mixture of the explosive gas in inverse pro- 
portion to the amount of the work required from the 
engine. 

THE DIESEL OIL ENGINE, 

on account of some features peculiar to it, is treated 
separately. In 1901 an expert wrote of it that "the 
engine has not attained any commercial position.*'"' Herr 
Rudolph Diesel, the inventor, has, however, won a high 
place for his prime-mover among those which consume 
liquid fuel, on account of its extraordinary economy. The 
makers claim — as the result of many tests — that with the 
crude rock-oil (costing in bulk about 2d. a gallon) which 
it uses, a horse-power can be developed for one hour by 
this engine for one-tenth of a penny. The daily fuel bill 
for a 100 h.-p. engine running ten hours per day would 
therefore be 8s. 4<d. To compete with the Diesel engine a 
steam installation would have to be of the very highest 
class of triple-expansion type, of not less than 400 h.p., 
and using every hour per horse-power only If lbs. of coal 
at 9s. per ton. Very few large steam-engines work under 
conditions so favourable, and with small sizes 3-4 lbs. of 
coal would be burnt for every " horse-power-hour. ''^ 

The Diesel differs from other internal combustion 
engines in the following respects : — 

1. It works with very much higher compression. 

2. The ignition is spontaneous, resulting from the high 

compression of the charge alone. 

122 



INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES 

3. The fuel is not admitted into the cylinder until the 

power-stroke begins, and enters in the form of a 
fine spray. 

4. The combustion of the fuel is much slower, and there- 

fore gives a more continuous and elastic push to the 

piston. 
The engine works on the ordinary Otto cycle. To start 
it, air compressed in a separate vessel is injected into the 
cylinder. The piston flies out, and on its return squeezes 
the air to about 500 lbs. to the square inch, thus render- 
ing it incandescent.* Just as the piston begins to move 
out again a valve in the cylinder-head opens, and a jet of 
pulverised oil is squirted in by air compressed to 100 lbs. 
per square inch more than the pressure in the cylinder. 
The vapour, meeting the hot air, bums, but comparatively 
slowly: the pressure in the cylinder during the stroke 
decreasing much more gradually than in other engines. 
Governing is effected by regulation of the amount of oil 
admitted into the cylinder. 

* The fact that air is heated to combustion point by compression 
has long been known to the Chinese. In The River of Golden Sandy 
Captain Gill writes : ** The natives have an apparatus by which they 
strike a light by compressed air. The apparatus consists of a wooden 
cylinder 24 inches long by J inch in diameter. This is closed at one 
end ; the bore being about the size of a stout quill pen, an air-tight 
piston fits into this with a large flat knob at the top. The other end 
of the piston is slightly hollowed out, and a very small piece of tinder 
is placed on the top thus formed. The cylinder is held in one hand, 
the piston inserted and pushed about half-way down ; a very sharp 
blow is then delivered with the palm of the hand on to the top of the 
knob ; the hand must at the same time close on the knob, and 
instantly withdraw the piston, when the tinder will be found alight. 
The compression of the air produces heat enough to light the tinder ; 
but this will go out again unless the piston is withdrawn very sharply. 
I tried a great many times, but covered myself with confusion in 
fruitless efforts to get a light, for the natives never miss it" 

123 



MODERN MECHANISM 

In spite of its high compression this engine runs with 
very little vibration. The writer saw a penny stand 
unmoved on its edge on the top of a cylinder in which 
the piston was reciprocating 500 times a minute ! 

ENGINES WORKED BY PRODUCER-GAS 

These engines are worked by a special gas generated in 
an apparatus called a " producer." If air is forced 
through incandescent carbon in a closed furnace its 
oxygen unites with the carbon and forms carbonic acid 
gas, known chemically as COg, because every molecule of 
the gas contains one atom of carbon and two of oxygen. 
This gas, being the product of combustion, cannot burn 
(i.e. combine with more oxygen), but as it passes up 
through the glowing coke, coal, or other fuel, it absorbs 
another carbon atom into every molecule, and we have 
C2O2, or 2 CO, which we know as carbon monoooide. This 
gas may be seen burning on the top of an open fire with 
a very pale blue flame, as it once more combines with 
oxygen to form carbonic acid gas. 

The carbon monoxide is valuable as a heating agent, 
and when mixed with air forms an explosive mixture. 

If along with the air sent into our furnace there goes a 
proportion of steam, further chemical action results. The 
oxygen of the steam combines with carbon to form carbon 
monoxide, and sets free the hydrogen. The latter gas, 
when it combines with oxygen in combustion, causes 
intense heat ; so that if from the furnace we can draw off 
carbon monoxide and hydrogen, we shall be able to get a 
mixture which during combustion will set up great heat 
in the cylinder of an engine. 

124 



INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES 

In 1878 Mr. Emerson Dowson invented an apparatus 
for manufacturing a gas suitable for power plant, the gas 
being known as Producer or Poor Gas, the last term 
referring to its poorness in hydrogen as compared with 
coal and other gases. While the hydrogen is a desirable 
ingredient in an explosive charge, it must not form a 
large proportion, since under compression it renders the 
mixture in which it takes part dangerously combustible, 
and liable to spontaneous ignition before the piston has 
finished the compression stroke. Water-gas, very rich in 
hydrogen, and made by a very similar process, is therefore 
not suitable for internal combustion engines. 

There are many types of producers, but they fall under 
two main heads, i.e. the pressure and the suction. 

The pressure producer contains the following essential 
parts : — 

The generator, a vertical furnace fed from the top 
through an air-tight trap, and shut off below from the 
outside atmosphere by having its foot immersed in water. 
Any fuel or ashes which fall through the bars into the 
water can be abstracted without spoiling the draught. 
Air and steam are forced into the generator, and pass up 
through the fuel with the chemical results already de- 
scribed. The gases then flow into a cooler, enclosed in a 
water-jacket, through which water circulates, and on into 
a scrubber, where they must find their way upwards 
through coke kept dripping with water from overhead 
jets. The water collects impurities of all sorts, and the 
gas is then ready for storage in the gas-holders or for 
immediate use in the engines. 

A pound of anthracite coal thus burnt will yield 
enough gas to develop 1 h.p. for one hour. 

125 



MODERN MECHANISM 

Suction Gas Plants, — With these gas is not stored in 
larger quantities than are needed for the immediate work 
of the engine. In fact, the engine itself during its suction 
strokes draios air and steam through a very small furnace, 
coolers, and scrubbers direct into the cylinder. The 
furnace is therefore fed with air and water, not by pres- 
sure from outside, but by suction from inside, hence the 
name " suction producer.'** At the present time suction 
gas engines are being built for use on ships, since a pound 
of fuel thus consumed will drive a vessel further than if 
burnt under a steam boiler. Very possibly the big ocean 
liners of twenty years hence may be fitted with such 
engines in the place of the triple and quadruple expansion 
steam machinery now doing the work. 

BLAST-FURNACE GAS ENGINES 

Every iron blast-furnace is very similar in construction 
and action to the generator of a producer-gas plant. Into 
it are fed through a hopper, situated in the top, layers of 
ore, coal or coke, and limestone. At the bottom enters a 
blast of air heated by passing through a stove of fire- 
brick raised to a high temperature by the carbon 
monoxide gas coming off from the furnace. When the 
stove has been well heated the gas supply is shut off from 
it and switched to the engine-house to create power for 
driving the huge blowers. 

The gas contains practically no hydrogen, as the air 
sent through the furnace is Aiy ; but since it will stand 
high compression, it is very suitable for use in large 
engines. Formerly all the gas from the furnace was 
expelled into the open air and absolutely wasted ; then 

126 



INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES 

it was utilised to heat the forced draught to the furnace ; 
next, to burn under boilers ; and last of all, at the sugges- 
tion of Mr. B. H. Thwaite, to operate internal combustion 
engines for blowing purposes. Thus, in the fitness of 
things, we now see the biggest gas engines in the world 
installed where gas is created in the largest quantities, 
and an interesting cycle of actions results. The engine 
pumps the air ; the air blows the furnace and melts the 
iron out of the ore ; the furnace creates the gas ; the gas 
heats the air or works the engines to pump more air. So 
engines and furnace mutually help each other, instead of 
all the obligation being on the one side. 

When, a few years ago, the method was first introduced, 
engines were damaged by the presence of dust carried with 
the gas from the furnace. Mr. B. H. Thwaite has, how- 
ever, perfected means for the separation of injurious 
matter, and blast-furnace gas is coming into general use 
in England and on the Continent. Some idea of the 
power which has been going to waste in ironworks for 
decades past may be gathered from a report of Professor 
Hubert after experiments made in 1900. He says that 
engines of large size do not use more than 100 cubic feet of 
average blast-furnace gas per effective horse-power-hour, 
which is less than one-fourth of the consumption of gas 
required to develop the same power from boilers and good 
modern condensing steam-engines, so that there is an 
immense surplus of power to be obtained from a blast- 
furnace if the blowing engines are worked by the gas it 
generates, a surplus which can be still further increased if 
the gas is properly cleaned. It is estimated that for 
every 100 tons of coke used in an ordinary Cleveland 

127 



MODERN MECHANISM 

blast-furnace, after making ample allowance for gas for 
the stoves and power for the lifts, pumps, etc., and for 
gas for working the necessary blowing engines, there is a 
surplus of at least 1^500 h.p, ; so that by economising gas 
by cleaning, and developing the necessary power by gas 
engines, every furnace owner would have a very large 
surplus of power for his steel or other works, or for selling 
in the form of electricity or otherwise. 

Yet all this gas had been formerly turned loose for the 
breezes to warm their fingers at ! Truly, as an observant 
writer has recorded, the sight of a special plant being 
put up near a blast furnace to manufacture gas for the 
blowing engines suggests the pumping of water uphill in 
order to get water-power ! 

Messrs. Westgarth and Richardson, of Middlesbrough ; 
the John Cockerill Company, of Seraing, Belgium ; and 
the De la Vergne Company, of New York, are among the 
chief makers of the largest gas engines in the world, 
ranging up to 3,750 h.p. each. These immense machines, 
some with fly-wheels 30 feet in diameter, and cylinders 
spacious enough for a man to stand erect in, work blowers 
for furnaces or drive dynamos. At the works of the 
manufacturers mentioned the engines helped to make 
the steel, and turn the machinery for the creation of 
brother monsters. 

This use of a "bye-product^ of industry is remark- 
able, but it can be paralleled. Furnace slag, once cast 
aw^ay as useless, is now recognised to be a valuable 
manure, or is converted into bricks, tiles, cement, and 
other building materials. Again, the former waste from 
the coal-gas purifier assumes importance as the origin of 

128 



INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES 

aniline dyes, creosote, saccharine, ammonia, and oils. 
We really appear to be within sight of the happy time 
when waste will be unknown. And it therefore is 
curious that we still burn gas as an illuminant, when the 
same, if made to work an engine, would give more light- 
ing power in the shape of electric current supplying 
incandescent lamps. 



129 



CHAPTER VII 
MOTOR-CARS 

THE MOTOR OMNIBUS RAILWAY MOTOR-CARS 

THE development of the motor-car has been phe- 
nomenal. Early in 1896 the only mechanically 
moved vehicles to be seen on our roads were the 
traction-engine, preceded by a man bearing a red flag, the 
steam-roller, and, in the towns, a few trams. To-day the 
motor is apparent everywhere, dodging through street 
traffic, or raising the dust of the country roads and lanes, 
or lumbering along with its load of merchandise at a 
steady gait. 

As a purely speed machine the motor-car has practi- 
cally reached its limit. With 100 h.p. or more crowded 
into a vehicle scaling only a ton, the record rate of travel 
has approached two miles in a minute on specially pre- 
pared and peculiarly suitable tracks. Even up steep 
hills such a monster will career at nearly eighty miles an 
hour. 

Next to the racing car comes the touring car, engined 
to give sixty miles an hour on the level in the more 
powerful types, or a much lower speed in the car intended 
for quieter travel, and for people who are not prepared to 
face a big bill for upkeep. The luxury of the age has 
invaded the design of automobiles till the gorgeously 

130 



MOTOR-CARS 

decorated and comfortably furnished Pullman of the rail- 
way has found a counterpart in the motor caravan with 
its accommodation for sleeping and feeding. While the 
town dweller rolls along in electric landaulet, screened 
from wind and weather, the tourist may explore the roads 
of the world well housed and lolling at ease behind the 
windows of his SjOOO-guinea machine, on which the 
engineer and carriage builder have lavished their utmost 
skill. 

The taunt of unreliability once levelled — and with 
justice— »-at the motor-car, is fast losing its force, owing 
to the vast improvements in design and details which 
manufacturers have been stimulated to make. The motor- 
car industry has a great future before it, and the prizes 
therein are such as to tempt both inventor and engineer. 
Every week scores of patents are granted for devices 
which aim at the perfection of some part of a car, its 
tyres, its wheels, or its engines. Until standard types for 
all grades of motor vehicles have been established, this 
restless flow of ideas will continue. Its volume is the 
most striking proof of the vitality of the industry. 

The uses to which the motor vehicle has been put are 
legion. On railways the motor carriage is catering for 
local traffic. On the roads the motor omnibus is steadily 
increasing its numbers. Tradesmen of all sorts, and 
persons concerned with the distribution of commodities, 
find that the petrol- or steam-moved car or lorry has 
very decided advantages over horse traction. Our postal 
authorities have adopted the motor mail van. The War 
Office looks to the motor to solve some of its transporta- 
tion difficulties. In short, the ^' motor age"' has arrived, 

131 



MODERN MECHANISM 

which will, relatively to the "railway age,"*^ play much the 
same part as that epoch did to the " horse age."' At the 
ultimate effects of the change we can only guess ; but we 
see already, in the great acceleration of travel wherever 
the motor is employed, that many social institutions are 
about to be revolutionised. But for the determined 
opposition in the 'thirties of last century to the steam 
omnibus we should doubtless live to-day in a very differ- 
ent manner. Our population would be scattered more 
broadcast over the country instead of being herded in 
huge towns. Many railways would have remained un- 
built, but our roads would be kept in much better con- 
dition, special tracks having been built for the rapid 
travel of the motor. We have only to look to a country 
now in course of development to see that the road, which 
leads everywhere, will, in combination with the motor 
vehicle, eventually supplant, or at any rate render un- 
necessary, the costly network of railways which must be 
a network of very fine mesh to meet the needs of a 
civilised community. 

In the scope of a few pages it is impossible to cover 
even a tithe of the field occupied by the ubiquitous motor- 
car, and we must, therefore, restrict ourselves to a glance 
at the manufacture of its mechanism, and a few short ex- 
cursions into those developments which promise most to 
alter our modes of life. 

We will begin with a trip over one of the largest motor 
factories in the world, selecting that of Messrs. Dion and 
Bouton, whose names are inseparable from the history of 
the modern motor-car. They may justly claim that to 
deal with the origin, rise, and progress of the huge busi- 

132 



I 



" 



MOTOR-CARS 

ness which they have built up would be to give an account, 
in its general lines, of all the phases through which the 
motor, especially the petrol motor, has passed from its 
crudest shape to its present state of comparative per- 
fection. 

The Count Albert de Dion was, in his earlier days, 
little concerned with things mechanical. He turned 
rather to the fashionable pursuit of duelling, in which he 
seems to have made a name. But he was not the man to 
waste his life in such inanities, and when, one day, he was 
walking down the Paris boulevards, his attention was 
riveted by a little clockwork carriage exposed for sale 
among other New Year's gifts. That moment was fraught 
with great consequences, for an inventive mind had found 
a proper scope for its energy. Why, thought he, could 
not real cars be made to run by some better form of 
motive power ? On inquiring he learnt that a workman 
named Bouton had produced the car. The Count, there- 
fore, sought the artisan ; with whom he worked out the 
problem which had now become his aim in life. Hence it 
is that the names "Dion — Bouton'" are found on thousands 
of engines all over the world. 

The partners scored their first successes with steam- and 
petrol-driven tricycles, built in a small workshop in the 
Avenue MalakofF in Paris. The works were then trans- 
ferred to Puteaux, which has since developed into the 
great automobile centre of the world, and after two more 
changes found a resting-place on the Quai National. 
Here close upon 3,000 hands are engaged in supplying the 
world's requirements in motors and cars. Let us enter 
the huge block of buildings and watch them at work. 

133 



MODERN MECHANISM 

The drawing-office is the brain of the factory. Within 
its walls new ideas are being put into practical shape by 
skilled draughtsmen. The drawings are sent to the model- 
making shop, where the parts are first fashioned in wood. 
The shop contains dozens of big benches, circular saws, 
and planing machines, one of them in the form of a 
revolving drum carrying a number of planes, which turns 
thousands of times a minute, and shapes off the rough 
surface of the blocks of hard wood as if it were so much 
clay. These blocks are cut, planed, and turned, and then 
put into the hands of a remarkably skilled class of work- 
men, who, with rule, calliper, and chisel, shape out 
cyHnders and other parts to the drawings before them 
with wonderful patience and exactness. 

After the model has been fashioned, the next step is to 
make a clay mould from the same, with a hole in the top 
through which the molten metal is poured. The foundry 
is most picturesque in a lurid, Rembrandtesque fashion : 
" It is black everywhere. The floor, walls, and roof are 
black, and the foundry hands look like unwashed peni- 
tents in sackcloth and ashes. At the end of the building 
there is a raised brickwork, and when the visitor is able to 
see in the darkness, he distinguishes a number of raised 
lids along the top, while here and there are strewn about 
huge iron ladles like buckets. On the foreman giving the 
word, a man steps up on the brickwork and removes the 
hd, when a column of intense white light strikes upwards. 
It gives one the impression of coming from the bowels 
of the earth, like a hole opening out in a volcano. 
The man bestrides the aperture, down which he drops 
the ladle at the end of a long pole, and then pulling it 

134 



MOTOR-CARS 

up again full of a straw-coloured, shining liquid, so close 
to him that we shudder at the idea of its spilling over his 
legs and feet, he pours the molten metal into a big ladle, 
which is seized by two men who pour the liquid into the 
moulds. The work is more difficult than it looks, for it 
requires a lot of practice to fill the moulds in such a way as 
to avoid blpw-holes and flaws that prove such a serious item 
in foundry practice."" 

In the case-hardening department, next door, there are 
six huge ovens with sliding fronts. Therein are set parts 
which have been forged or machined, and are subjected to 
a high temperature while covered in charcoal, so that the 
skin of the metal may absorb carbon at high tempera- 
tures and become extremely tough. All shafts, gears, and 
other moving parts of a car are subjected to this treat- 
ment, which permits a considerable reduction in the 
weight of metal used, and greatly increases its resistance 
to wear. After being "carbonised,"'' the material is 
tempered by immersion in water while of a certain heat, 
judged by the colour of the hot metal. 

We now pass to the turning-shop, where the cylinders 
are bored out by a grinding disc rapidly rotating on an 
eccentric shaft, which is gradually advanced through the 
cylinder as it revolves. The utmost accuracy, to the 
^Q QQQ part of an inch, is necessary in this operation, since 
the bore must be perfectly cylindrical, and also of a 
standard size, so that any standard piston may exactly fit 
it. After being bored, or rather ground, the walls of the 
cylinder are highly polished, and the article is ready for 
testing. The workman entrusted with this task hermetic- 
ally closes the ends by inserting the cylinder between the 

135 



MODERN MECHANISM 

plates of an hydraulic press, and pumps in water to a 
required pressure. If there be the slightest crack, crevice, 
or hole, the water finds its way through, and the piece is 
condemned to the rubbish heap. 

In the "motor-room" are scores of cylinders, crank- 
cases, and gears ready for finishing. Here the outside 
of bored cylinders is touched up by files to remove any 
marks and rough projections left by the moulds. The 
crank-cases of aluminium are taken in hand by men who 
chisel the edges where the two halves fit, chipping ofF the 
metal with wonderful skill and precision. The edges are 
then ground smooth, and after the halves have been 
accurately fitted, the holes for the bolts connecting them 
are di-iUed in a special machine, which presents a di-iU to 
each hole in succession. 

Having seen the various operations which a cylinder has 
to go through, we pass into another shop given up to long 
Imes of benches where various motor parts are being 
completed. Each piece, however small, is treated as of the 
utmost importance, since the failure of even a tiny pin 
may bring the largest car to a standstill. We see a man 
testing pump discs against a standard template to prove 
their absolute accuracy. Close by, another man is finish- 
ing a fly-wheel, chipping off" specks of metal to make the 
balance true. We now understand that machine tools 
cannot utterly displace the human hand and eye. The 
fitters, with touches of the file, remove matter in such 
minute quantities that its removal might seem of no 
consequence. But "matter in the wrong place" is the 
cause of many breakdoAvns. 

We should natm-ally expect that engines cast from the 

U6 



MOTOR-CARS 

same pattern, handled by the same machines, finished by 
the same men, would give identical results. But as two 
bicycles of similar make will run differently, so do engines 
of one type develop peculiarities. The motors are there- 
fore taken into a testing-room and bolted to two rows 
of benches, forty at a time. Here they run under power 
for long periods, creating a deafening uproar, until all 
parts work "sweetly."' The power of the engines is 
[tested by harnessing them to dynamos and noting the 
amount of current developed at a certain speed. 

We might linger in the departments where accumu- 
lators, sparking plugs, and other parts of the electrical 
apparatus of a car are made, or in the laboratory where 
chemists pry into the results of a new alloy, aided by 
powerful microscopes and marvellously delicate scales. 
But we will stop only to note the powerful machine 
which is stretching and crushing metal to ascertain its 
toughness. No care in experimenting is spared. The 
chemist, poring over his test tubes, plays as important 
a part in the construction of a car as the foundry man 
or the turner. 

The machine-shop is an object-lesson among the tools 
noticed in previous chapters of this book. "Here is a 
huge planing machine travelling to and fro over a copper 
bar. A crank shaft has been cut out of solid steel by 
boring holes close together through a thick plate, and 
the two sides of the plate have been broken off*, leaving 
the rough shaft with its edges composed of a considerable 
number of semicircles. The shaft is slowly rotated on 
a lathe, and tiny clouds of smoke arise as the tool nicks 
off pieces of metal to reduce the shaft to a circular shape. 

^37 



MODERN MECHANISM 

Other machines, with high-speed tool steel, are finishing 
gear shafts. Fly-wheels are being turned and worm 
shafts cut. All these laborious operations are carried 
out by the machines, each under the control of one 
man whose mind is intent upon the work, ready to stop 
the machine or adjust the material as may be required. 
As a contrast to the heavy machines we will pass to the 
light automatic tools which are grouped in a gallery. . . . 
The eye is bewildered by the moving mass, but the 
whirling of the pulley shafts and the clicking of the 
capstan lathes is soothing to the ear, while the mind is 
greatly impressed by the ingenuity of man in suppressing 
labour by means of machines, of which half a dozen can 
be easily looked after by one hand, who has nothing to 
do but to see that they are fed with material. A rod 
of steel is put into the machine, and the turret, with 
half a dozen different tools, presents first one and then 
the other to the end of the rod bathed in thick oil, so 
that it is rapidly turned, bored, and shaped into caps, 
nuts, bolts, and the scores of other little accessories 
required in fitting up a motor-car. On seeing how all 
this work is done mechanically and methodically, with 
scarcely any other expense but the capital required in 
the upkeep of the machines and in driving them, one 
wonders how the automobile industry could be carried 
on without this labour-saving mechanism. In any event, 
if all these little pieces had to be turned out by hand, 
it is certain that the cost of the motor-car would be 
considerably more than it is, even if it did not reach 
to such a figure as to make it prohibitive to all but 
wealthy buyers. Down one side of the gallery the 

138 



MOTOR-CARS 

machines are engaged in cutting gears with so much 
precision that, when tested by turning them together 
on pins on a bench at the end of the gallery, it is very 
rare indeed that any one of them is found defective. 
This installation of automatic tools is one of the largest 
of its kind in a motor-car works, if not in any engineering 
shop, and each one has been carefully selected in view 
of its efficiency for particular classes of work, so that 
we see machines from America, England, France, and 
Germany." 

In the fitting-shops the multitude of parts are 
assembled to form the chassis or mechanical carriage 
of the car, to which, in a separate shop, is added the 
body for the accommodation of passengers. The whole 
is painted and carefully varnished after it has been out 
on the road for trials to discover any weak spot in its 
anatomy. Then the car is ready for sale. 

When one considers the racketing that a high-powered 
car has to stand, and the high speed of its moving parts, 
one can understand why those parts must be made so 
carefully and precisely, and also how this care must 
conduce to the expense of the finished article. It has 
been said that it is easy to make a good watch, but 
difficult to make a good motor ; for though they both 
require an equal amount of exactitude and skill, the 
latter has to stand much more wear in proportion. 
When you look at a first-grade car bearing a great 
maker'^s name, you have under your eyes one of the most 
wonderful pieces of mechanism the world can show. 

We will not leave the de Dion-Bouton Works without 
a further glance at the human element. The company 

139 



MODERN MECHANISM 

never have a slack time, and consequently can employ the 
same number of people all the year round. They pride 
themselves on the fact that the great majority of the men 
have been in their employ for several years, with the 
result that they have around them a class of workmen 
who are steady, reliable and, above all, skilful in the 
particular work they are engaged upon. There are more 
than 2,600 men and about 100 women, these latter being 
employed chiefly in the manufacture of sparking plugs and 
m other departments where there is no night work. They 
are mostly the wives or widows of old workmen, and in 
thus finding employment for them the firm provides for 
those who would otherwise be left without resource, and 
at the same time earns the gratitude of their employes. 

Note.— The author gratefuUy acknowledges the help given by 
Messrs. de Dion-Bouton, Ltd., in providing materials for this account 
of their works. 

THE MOTOR OMNIBUS 

Prior to the emancipation of the road automobile in 
1896, permission had been granted to corporations to 
run trams driven by mechanical power through towns. 
The steam tram, its engine protected by a case which hid 
the machinery from the view of restive horses, panted 
up and down our streets, drawing one or more vehicles 
behmd it. The electric tram presently came over from 
America and soon established its superiority to the 
steamer with respect to speed, freedom from smell and 
smoke, and noiselessness : the system generally adopted 
was that invented in 1887 by Frank J. Sprague, in which 
an overhead cable supported on posts or slung from wires 



140 






MOTOR-CARS 



ipanning the track carries current to a trolley arm pro- 
jecting from the vehicle. The return current passes 
through the rails, which are made electrically continuous 
by having their individual lengths either welded together 
or joined by metal strips. 

In America, where wide streets and rapidly growing 
cities are the rule, the electric tramway serves very useful 
ends ; the best proof of its utility being the total mileage 
of the tracks. Statistics for 1902 show that since 1890 
the mileage had increased from 1,261 to 21,920 miles ; 
and the number of passengers carried from 2,023,010,202 
to 4,813,466,001, or an increase of 137*94 per cent. It is 
interesting to note that electricity has in the United 
States almost completely ousted steam and animal traction 
so far as street cars are concerned ; since the 5,661 miles 
once served by animal power have dwindled to 259, and 
steam can claim only 169 miles of track. 

Next to the United States comes Germany as a user of 
electricity for tractive purposes ; though she is a very bad 
second with only about 6,000 miles of track ; and England 
takes third place with about 3,000 miles. That the 
British Isles, so well provided with railways, should be 
so poorly equipped with tramways is comprehensible when 
we consider the narrowness of the streets of her largest 
towns, where a good service of public vehicles is most 
needed. The installation of a tram-line necessitates the 
tearing up of a street, and in many cases the closing of 
that street to traffic. We can hardly imagine the dis- 
location of business that would result from such a blockage 
of, say, the Strand and High Holborn ; but since it has 
been calculated that no less than five millions of pounds 

141 



MODERN MECHANISM 

sterling are lost to our great metropolis yearly by the 
obstructions of gas, water, telegraph, and telephone opera- 
tions, which only partially close a thoroughfare, or by the 
relaying of the road surface, which is not a very lengthy 
matter if properly conducted, we might reckon the financial 
loss resulting from the laying of tram-rails at many millions. 

Even were they laid, the trouble would not cease, for 
a tram is confined to its track, and cannot make way for 
other traffic. This inadaptability has been the cause of 
the great outcry lately raised against the way in which 
tram-line companies have monopolised the main streets 
and approaches to many of our largest towns. While the 
electric tram is beneficial to a large class of people, as 
a cheap method of locomotion between home and business, 
it sadly handicaps all owners of vehicles vexatiously de- 
layed by the tram. At Brentford, to take a notorious 
example, the double tram-line so completely fills the High 
Street that it is at places impossible for a cart or carriage 
to remain at the kerbstone. 

Another charge levelled with justice at the tram-line is 
that the rails and their setting are dangerous to cyclists, 
motorists, and even heavy vehicles, especially in wet weather, 
when the " side-slip *''' demon becomes a real terror. 

English municipalities are therefore faced by a serious 
problem. Improved locomotion is necessary ; how can it 
best be provided? By smooth-running, luxurious, well- 
lighted electric trams, travelling over a track laid at 
great expense, and a continual nuisance to a large section 
of the community ; or by vehicles independent of a central 
source of power, and free to move in any direction ac- 
cording to the needs of the traffic? Where tramways 

142 



I 



MOTOR-CARS 



exist, those responsible for laying them at the rate of 
several thousand pounds per mile are naturally reluctant 
to abandon them. But where the fixed track has not yet 
arrived an alternative method of transport is open, viz. 
the automobile omnibus. Quite recently we have seen in 
London and other towns a great increase in the number of 
motor buses, which often ply far out into the country. 
From the point of speed they are very superior to the 
horsed vehicle, and statistics show that they are also less 
costly to run in proportion to the fares carried, while 
passengers will unanimously acknowledge their greater 
comfort. To change from the ancient, rattling two-horse 
conveyance, which jolts us on rough roads, and occasion- 
ally sends a thrill up the spine when the brakes are 
applied, to the roomy steam- or petrol-driven bus, which 
overtakes and threads its way through the slower traffic, 
is a pleasant experience. So the motor buses are crowded, 
while the horsed rivals on the same route trundle along 
half empty. Since the one class of vehicles can travel at 
an average pace of ten miles an hour, as against the four 
miles an hour of the other, no wonder that this should be 
so. Even if the running costs of a motor bus for a given 
distance exceed that of an electric tram, we must remem- 
ber that, whereas a bus runs on already existing roads, an 
immense amount of capital must be sunk in laying the 
track for the tram, and the interest on this sum has to be 
added to the total running costs. 

The next decade will probably decide whether auto- 
mobiles or trams are to serve the needs of the community 
in districts where at present no efficient service of any 
kind exists. In London motor buses are being placed on 

143 



MODERN MECHANISM 

the roads by scores, and the day cannot be far distant 
when the horse will disappear from the bus as it is already 
fast vanishing from the front of the tram. 

Both petrol and steam, and in some cases a combina- 
tion of petrol and electricity, are used to propel the 
motor bus. It has not yet been decided which form of 
power yields the best results. Petrol is probably the 
cheaper fuel, but steam gives the quieter running ; and 
could electric storage batteries be made sufficiently light 
and durable they would have a strong claim to prece- 
dence. There has lately appeared a new form of accumu- 
lator — the von Rothmund — which promises well, since 
weight for weight it far exceeds in capacity any other 
type, and is so constructed that it will stand a lot of 
rough usage. A car fitted with a von Rothmund battery 
scaling about 1,500 lbs. has run 200 miles on one charge, 
and it is anticipated that with improvements in motors 
a 1,100-lb. battery will readily be run 150 miles as against 
the 50 miles in the case of a lead battery of equal weight. 

There is a large sphere open to the motor bus outside 
districts where the electric tram would enter into serious 
competition with it. We have before us a sketch-map of 
the Great Western Railway, one of the most enterprising 
systems with regard to its use of motors to feed its rails. 
No less than thirty road services are in operation, and their 
number is being steadily augmented. In fact, it looks as 
if in the near future the motor service will largely sup- 
plant the branch railway, blessed with very few trains a 
day. A motor bus service plying every half-hour between 
a town and the nearest important main-line station would 
be more valuable to the inhabitants than half a dozen 

144 



MOTOR-CAKS 

trains a day, especially if the passenger vehicles were 
supplemented by lorries for the carriage of luggage and 
heavy goods. 
g^ In this connection we may notice an invention of 
M. Renard — a motor train of several vehicles towed by a 
single engine. We have all seen the traction-engine 
puffing along with its tail of trucks, and been impressed 
by the weight of the locomotive, and also by the manner 
in which the train occupies a road when passing a comer. 
The weight is necessary to give sufficient grip to move the 
whole train, while the spreading of the vehicles across the 
thoroughfare on a curve arises from the fact that each 
vehicle does not follow the path of that preceding it, but 
describes part of a smaller circle. 

M. Renard has, in his motor train, evaded the need for 
a heavy tractor by providing every vehicle with a pair of 
driving wheels, and transmitting the power to those wheels 
by a special flexible propeller shaft which passes from the 
powerful motor on the leading vehicle under all the other 
vehicles, engaging in succession with mechanism attached 
to all the driving axles. In this manner each car yields 
its quotum of adhesion for its own populsion, and the 
necessity for great weight is obviated. Special couplings 
ensure that the path taken by the tractor shall be 
faithfully followed by all its followers. A motor train of 
this description has travelled from Paris to Berlin and 
drawn to itself a great deal of attention. 

" Will it,'' asks a writer in The World's Wo7% " ulti- 
mately displace the conventional traction-engine and its 
heavy trailing waggons? Every municipality and County 
Council is only too painfully cognisant of the dire effects 
K 145 



MODERN MECHANISM 

upon the roads exercised by the cumbrous wheels of these 
unwieldy locomotives and trains. With the Renard 
train, however, the trailing coaches can be of light con- 
struction, carried on ordinary wheels which do not cut up 
or otherwise damage the roadway surface. Many other 
advantages inherent in such a train might be enumerated. 
The most important, however, are the flexibility of the 
whole train ; its complete control ; faster speed without 
any attendant danger; its remarkable braking arrange- 
ments as afforded by the continuous propeller shaft 
gearing directly with the driving-wheels of each carriage ; 
its low cost of maintenance, serviceability, and instant 
use ; and the reduction in the number of men requisite for 
the attention of the train while on a journey.'*' 

Were the system a success, it would find plenty of scope 
to convey passengers and commodities through districts 
too sparsely populated to render a railway profitable. 
People would talk about travelling or sending goods by 
the "ten-thirty motor train,"** just as now we speak of 
the " eleven-fifteen to town.**"* 

As a carrier and distributer of mails, the motor van has 
already established a position. To quote but a couple of 
instances, there are the services between London and 
Brighton, and Liverpool and Manchester. In the Isle 
of Wight motor omnibuses connect all the principal 
towns and villages. Each bus is a travelling post-office 
in which, by an arrangement with the Postmaster- General, 
anybody may post letters at the recognised stopping- 
places or whenever the vehicle has halted for any purpose. 

In Paris, London, Berlin, the motor mail van is a com- 
mon sight. It has even penetrated the interior of India, 

146 



MOTOR-CARS 

where the Maharajah of Gwalior uses a specially fitted 
steam car for the delivery of his private mails. And, as 
though to show that man alone shall not profit by the 
new mode of locomotion, Paris owns a motor-car which 
conveys lost dogs from the different police-stations to the 
Dogs'* Home ! In fact, there seems to be no purpose to 
which a horse-drawn vehicle can be put, which either has 
not been, or shortly will be, invaded by the motor. 

RAILWAY MOTOR-CARS 

In the early days of railway construction vehicles were 
used which combined a steam locomotive with an ordinary 
passenger carriage. After being abandoned for many 
years, the "steam carriage ''^ was revived, in 1902, by the 
London and South Western and Great Western railways 
for local service and the handling of passenger traffic on 
branch lines. Since that year rail motor-cars have 
multiplied; some being run by steam, others by petrol 
engines, and others, again, by electricity generated by 
petrol engines. The first class we need not describe in 
any detail, as it presents no features of peculiar interest. 

The North Eastern has had in use two rail-motors, each 
fifty-two feet long, with a compartment at each end for 
the driver, and a central saloon to carry fifty-two passen- 
gers. An 80 h.-p. four-cylindered Wolseley petrol motor 
drives a Westinghouse electric generator, which sends 
current into a couple of 55 h.-p. electric motors geared to 
the running-wheels. An air compressor fitted to the rear 
bogie supplies the Westinghouse air brakes, while in addi- 
tion a powerful electric brake is fitted, acting on the rails 
as well as the wheels. The coach scales thirty-five tons. 

147 



MODERN MECHANISM 

The chief advantage of this " composite "*' system of 
power transmission is that the engine is kept running at 
a constant speed, while the power it develops at the 
electric motors is regulated by switches which control 
the action of the armature and field magnets. When 
heavy work must be done the engine is supplied with 
more gaseous mixture, and the generators are so operated 
as to develop full power. In this manner all the variable 
speed gears and clutches necessary when the petrol motor 
is connected to the driving-wheels are done away with. 

The latter system gives, however, greater economy of 
fuel, and the Great Northern Railway has adopted it in 
preference to the petrol-electric. This railway has many 
small branch lines running through thinly populated dis- 
tricts, which, though important as feeders of the main 
tracks, are often worked at a loss. A satisfactory type 
of automobile carriage would not only avoid this loss, but 
also largely prevent the competition of road motors. 

The car should be powerful enough to draw an extra 
van or two on occasion, since horses and heavy luggage 
may sometimes accompany the passengers. Messrs. Dick, 
Kerr, and Company have built a car, which, when loaded 
with its complement of passengers, weighs about sixteen 
tons. The motive power is supplied by two four-cylinder 
petrol engines of the Daimler type, each giving 36 h.p. 
These are suspended on a special frame, independent of 
that which carries the coach body, so that the passengers 
are not troubled by the vibration of the engines, even when 
the vehicle is at rest. The great feature of the car is the 
lightness of the machinery — only two tons in weight — 
though it develops sufficient power to move the carriage 

14S 



MOTOR-CARS 

at fifty miles per hour. After travelling 2,000 miles the 
machinery showed no appreciable signs of wear ; so that 
the company considers that it has found a reliable type 
of motor for the working of the short line between Hat- 
field and Hertford. 

Since one man can drive a petrol car, while two — a 
driver and a stoker — are necessary on a steam car, a con- 
siderable reduction in wages will result from the employ- 
ment of these vehicles. 

Engineers find motor-trolleys very convenient for in- 
specting the lines under their care. On the London and 
South Western Railway a trolley driven by a 6-8 h.-p. 
engine, and provided with a change-gear giving six, 
fifteen, and thirty miles per hour in either direction, is 
at work. It seats four persons. In the colonies, notably 
in South Africa, where coal and wood fuel is scarce or 
expensive, the motor-trolley, capable of carrying petrol 
for 300 miles' travel, is rapidly gaining ground among 
railway inspectors. 

Makers are turning their attention to petrol shunting 
engines, useful in goods yards, mines, sewerage works. 
Firms such as Messrs. Maudslay and Company, of 
Coventry ; the Wolseley Tool and Motor Car Company ; 
Messrs. Panhard and Levassor ; Messrs. Kerr, Stuart, and 
Company have brought out locomotives of this kind which 
will draw loads up to sixty tons. The fact that a petrol 
engine is ready for work at a moment's notice, and when 
idle is not "eating its head off*,"' and has no furnace or 
boiler to require attention, is very much in its favour 
where comparatively light loads have to be hauled. 



149 



CHAPTER VIII 
THE MOTOR AFLOAT 

PLEASURE BOATS MOTOR LIFEBOATS MOTOR FISHING BOATS A 

MOTOR FIRE FLOAT THE MECHANISM OF THE MOTOR BOAT 

THE TWO-STROKE MOTOR — MOTOR BOATS FOR THE NAVY 

HAVING made such conquests on land, and rendered 
possible aerial feats which could scarcely have been 
performed by steam, the explosion motor further 
vindicates its versatility by its fine exploits in the water. 

At the Paris Exhibition of 1889 Gottlieb Daimler, the 
inventor who made the petrol engine commercially valu- 
able as an aid to locomotion, showed a small gas-driven 
boat, which by most visitors to the Exhibition was mis- 
taken for an ordinary steam launch, and attracted little 
interest. Not deterred by this want of appreciation, Mr. 
Daimler continued to perfect the idea for which, with a 
prophet's eye, he saw great possibilities ; and soon motor 
launches became a fairly common sight on German rivers. 
They were received with some enthusiasm in the United 
States, as being particularly suitable for the inland lakes 
and waterways with which that country is so abundantly 
blessed; but met with small recognition from the English, 
who might reasonably have been expected to take great 
interest in any new nautical invention. Now, however, 
English manufacturers have awaked fully to their error ; 

150 







A MODERN CAR AND BOAT 

In the background is the racing motor boat " Napier II.", which on a trial trip travelled over 
the "measured mile " at 30-93 '"iles per hour._ In the foreground is a Napier 
racing car, which has attained a spe^d of 104*8 miles per hour. 



THE MOTOR AFLOAT 

and on all sides we see boats built by firms competing for 
the lead in an industry which in a few years' time may 
reach colossal proportions. 

Until quite recently the marine motor was a small 
affair, developing only a few horse-power. But because 
the gas-engine for automobile work had been so vastly 
improved in the last decade, it attracted notice as a rival 
to steam for driving launches and pleasure boats, and 
soon asserted itself as a reliable mover of vessels of con- 
siderable size. To promote the development of the in- 
dustry, to test the endurance of the machine, and to show 
the weak spots of mechanical design, trials and races were 
organised on much the same lines as those which have 
kept the motor-car so prominently before the public — 
races in the Solent, across the Channel, and across the 
Mediterranean. The speed, as in the case of cars, has 
risen very rapidly with the motor boat. When, in February, 
1905, a Napier racer did some trial spins over the 
measured mile in the Thames at Long Reach, she attained 
28-57 miles per hour on the first run. On turning, the 
tide was favourable, and the figures rose to 30-93 m.p.h., 
while the third improved on this by over a mile. Her 
mean speed was 29-925 m.p.h., or about f m.p.h. better 
than the previous record — standing to the credit of the 
American Challenger. The latter had, however, the still 
waters of a lake for her venue, so that the Napier's per- 
formance was actually even more creditable than the mere 
figures would seem to imply. At a luncheon which con- 
cluded the trial, Mr. Yarrow, who had built the steel hull, 
said : " To give an idea of what an advance the adoption 
of the internal combustion engine really represents, I 

151 



MODERN MECHANISM 

should like to state that, if we were asked to guarantee 
the best speed we could with a boat of the size of 
Napier II. , fitted with the latest -form of steam machinery 
of as reliable a character as the internal combustion engine 
in the present boat, we should not like to name more 
than sixteen knots. So that it may be taken that the 
adoption of the internal combustion engine, in place of 
the steam-engine, for a vessel of this size, really repre- 
sents an additional speed of ten knots an hour. I should 
here point out that the speed of a vessel increases rapidly 
with its size. For example : in what is termed a second- 
class torpedo boat, sixty feet in length, the best speed we 
could obtain w^ould be twenty knots ; but for a vessel of, 
say, 200 feet in length, with similar but proportion- 
ately larger machinery, a speed of thirty knots could 
be obtained. Therefore, the obtaining of a speed of 
practically twenty-six knots in the Yarrow-Napier boat, 
only forty feet in length, points to the possibility, in the 
not far-distant future, of propelling a vessel 220 feet in 
length at even forty-five knots per hour. All that 
remains to be done is to perfect the internal combustion 
engine, so as to enable large sizes to be successfully 
made."*' 

Boats of 300 h.p. and upwards are being built; and 
the project has been mooted of holding a transatlantic 
race, open to motor boats of all sizes, which should be 
quite self-contained and able to carry sufficient fuel to 
make the passage without taking in fresh supplies. In 
view of the perils that would be risked by all but large 
craft, and in consideration of the prejudice that motor 
boats might incur in event of any fatalities, the Auto- 

152 



THE MOTOR AFLOAT 

mobile Club of France set its face against the venture, 
and it fell through. It is possible, however, that the 
scheme may be revived as soon as larger motor boats are 
afloat, since the Atlantic has actually been crossed by a 
craft of 12 h.p., measuring only forty feet at the water- 
line. This happened in 1902, when Captain Newman and 
his son, a boy twelve years old, started from New York, 
and made Falmouth Harbour after thirty days of anxious 
travel pver the uncertain and sometimes tempestuous 
ocean. The boat, named the Abiel Abbot Lozc^ carried 
auxiliary sails of small size, and was not by any means 
built for such a voyage. The engine — a two-cylinder — 
burned kerosene. Captain Newman received £1,000 from 
the New York Kerosene Oil Engine Company for his feat. 
The money was well earned. Though provided with 
proper navigating instruments — which he knew how to 
use well — Newman had a hard time of it to keep his 
craft afloat, his watches sometimes lasting two days on 
end when the weather was bad. Yet the brave pair won 
through ; and probably even more welcome than the sense 
of success achieved and the reward gained was the long 
two-days'" sleep which they were able to get on reach- 
ing Falmouth Harbour. 

PLEASURE BOATS 

We may now consider the pleasure and commercial 
uses of the motor boat and marine motor. As a means 
of recreation a small dinghy driven by a low-powered 
engine offers great possibilities. Its cost is low, its up- 
keep small, and its handiness very great. Already a 
number of such craft are furrowing the surface of the 

153 



MODERN MECHANISM 

Thames, Seine, Rhine, and many other rivers in Europe 
and America. While racing craft are for the wealthy 
alone, many individuals of the class known as "the man 
of moderate means'" do not mind putting down £70 to 
£100 for a neat boat, the maintenance of which is not 
nearly so serious a matter as that of a small car. T3n:e 
troubles have no counterpart afloat. The marine motor 
dispenses with change gears. Water being a much more 
yielding medium than Mother Earth, the shocks of 
starting and stopping are not such as to strain machinery. 
Then again, the cooling of the cylinders is a simple 
matter with an unlimited amount of water almost 
washing the engine. And as the surface of water does 
not run uphill, a small motor will show to better 
advantage on a river than on a road. Thus, a 5 h.-p. 
car will not conveniently carry more than two people 
if it is expected to climb slopes at more than a crawl. 
Affix a motor of equal power to a boat which accom- 
modates half a dozen persons, and it will move them all 
along at a smart pace as compared with the rate of travel 
given by oars. After all, on a river one does not want to 
travel fast — rather to avoid the hard labour which rowing 
undoubtedly does become with a craft roomy enough to 
be comfortable for a party. 

The marine motor also scores under the heading of 
adaptability. A wagonette could not be converted into 
a motor-car with any success. But a good-sized row-boat 
may easily blossom out as a useful self-propelled boat. 
You may buy complete apparatus — motor, tanks, screw, 
batteries, etc. — for clamping direct on to the stern, and 
there you are — a motor boat while you wait ! Even more 

154 



THE MOTOR AFLOAT 

sudden still is the conversion effected by the Motogodille, 
which may be described as a motor screw and rudder in 
one. The makers are the Buchet Company, a well-known 
French firm. " Engine and carburetter, petrol tank, coil, 
accumulator, lubricating oil reservoir, exhaust box, pro- 
peller shaft, and propeller with guard are all provided, 
so that the outfit requires no additional accessories. For 
mounting in position at the stern of the boat, the 
complete set is balanced on a standard, and carries a 
steering arm, on which the tanks are mounted ; and also 
the stern tube and propeller guard, which are in one 
solid piece, in addition to the engine. In order that no 
balancing feats shall be required of the person in charge, 
there is, on the supporting standard, a quadrant, in the 
notches of which a lever on the engine frame engages, 
thus allowing the rigid framework, and therefore the 
propeller shaft, to be maintained at any angle to the 
vertical without trouble.'*'' * 

The 2 h.-p. engine drives a boat 16 feet long by 4 feet 
6 inches beam at 6 J miles per hour through still water. 
As the Motogodille can be swerved' to right or left on 
its standard, it acts as a very efficient rudder, while its 
action takes no way off the boat. 

For people who like an easy life on hot summer days, 
reclining on soft cushions, and peeping up through the 
branches which overhang picturesque streams, there is 
the motor punt, which can move in water so shallow that 
it would strand even a row-boat. The Oxford under- 
graduate of to-morrow will explore the leafy recesses of 
the " Cher,"" not with the long pole laboriously raised 
* The Motor Boat, March 16th, 1905. 



MODERN MECHANISM 

and pushed aft, but by the power of a snug little motor 
throbbing gently at the stern. And on the open river 
we shall see the steam launch replaced by craft having 
much better accommodation for passengers, while free 
from the dirt and smells which are inseparable from the 
use of steam-power. The petrol launch will rival the 
electric in spaciousness, and the steamer in its speed 
and power, size for size. 

Some people have an antipathy to this new form of 
river locomotion on account of the risks which accompany 
the presence of petrol. Were a motor launch to ignite 
in, say. Boulter's Lock on a summer Sunday, or at the 
Henley Regatta, there might indeed be a catastrophe. 
The same danger has before now been flaunted in the 
face of the automobilist on land; yet cases of the acci- 
dental ignition of cars are very, very rare, and on the 
water would be more rare still, because the tanks can be 
more easily examined for leaks. Still, it behoves every 
owner of a launch to keep his eye very widely open for 
leakage, because any escaping liquid would create a 
collection of gas in the bottom of the boat, from which 
it could not escape like the gas forming from drops 
spilled on the road. 

The future popularity of the motor boat is assured. 
The waterside dweller will find it invaluable as a means 
of carrying him to other parts of the stream. The 
" longshoreman '^ will be able to venture much further 
out to sea than he could while he depended on muscles 
or wind alone, and with much greater certainty of 
returning up to time. A whole network of waterways 
intersects civilised countries — often far better kept than 

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THE MOTOR AFLOAT 

the roads — offering fresh fields for the tourist to conquer. 
River scenery and beautiful scenery more often than not 
go together. The car or cycle may be able to follow the 
course of a stream from source to mouth ; yet this is 
the exception rather than the rule. We shoot over the 
stream in the train or on our machines ; note that it 
looks picturesque; wonder vaguely whither it fiows and 
whence it comes ; and continue our journey, recking 
little of the charming sights to be seen by anyone who 
would trust himself to the water. Hitherto the great 
difficulty has been one of locomotion. In a narrow 
stream sailing is generally out of the question ; haulage 
by man or beast becomes tedious, even if possible ; and 
rowing day after day presupposes a good physical con- 
dition. In the motor boat the holiday maker has an 
ideal craft. It occupies little room ; can carry fuel 
sufficient for long distances ; is unwearying ; and is 
economical as regards its running expenses. We ought 
not to be surprised, therefore, if in a few years the 
jaded business man turns as naturally to a spin or trip 
on the rivers and canals of his country as he now turns 
to his car and a rush over the dusty highway. Then 
will begin another era for the disused canal, the vegeta- 
tion-choked stream; and our maps will pay more 
attention to the paths which Nature has water- worn 
in the course of the ages. 

To the scientific explorer also the motor affords 
valuable help. Many countries, in which roads are prac- 
tically non-existent, can boast fine rivers fed by innumer- 
able streams. What fields of adventure, sport, and 
science would be open to the possessor of a fast launch on 

157 



MODERN MECHANISM 

the Amazon, the Congo, the Mackenzie, or the Orinoco, 
provided only that he could occasionally replenish his fuel 
tanks ! 

MOTOR LIFEBOATS 

Turning to the more serious side of life, we find the 
marine motor still much in evidence. On account of its 
comparatively short existence it is at present only in the 
experimental stage in many applications, and time must 
pass before its position is fully established. Take, for 
instance, the motor lifeboat lately built for the Royal 
National Lifeboat Institution. Here are encountered 
difficulties of a kind very different from those of a racing 
craft. A lifeboat is most valuable in rough weather, 
which means more or less water often coming aboard. If 
the water reached the machinery, troubles with the 
electrical ignition apparatus would result. So the motor 
must be enclosed in a water-tight compartment. And if 
so enclosed it must be specially reliable. Also, since a 
lifeboat sometimes upsets, the machinery needs to be so 
disposed as not to interfere with her self-righting qualities. 
The list might easily be extended. 

An account of the first motor life-saver will interest 
readers, so we once again have recourse to the chief 
authority on such topics — the Motor Boat — for particulars. 
The boat selected for experiment was an old one formerly 
stationed at Folkestone, measuring thirty-eight feet long 
by eight feet beam, pulling twelve oars, double-banked, 
and of the usual self-righting type, rigged with jib, fore- 
lug, and mizzen. After she had been hauled up in Mr. 
Guy'^s yard, where some of the air-cases under the deck 
amidships were taken out, a strong mahogany case, 

158 



THE MOTOR AFLOAT 

measuring four feet long by three feet wide and as high 
as the gunwales, lined with sheet copper so as to be water- 
j -tight, with a close-fitting lid which could be easily re- 
moved on shore, was fitted in place, and the whole of the 
vital parts of the machinery, comprising a two-cylinder 
motor of 10 h.p., together with all the necessary pumps, 
carburetter, electric equipment, etc., were fitted inside this 
case. The engine drives a three-bladed propeller through 
a long shaft with a disconnecting clutch between, so that 
for starting or stopping temporarily the screw can be dis- 
connected from the engine. The petrol, which serves 
as fuel for the engine, is carried in a metal tank stored 
away inside the forward "end'' box, where it is beyond 
any possibility of accidental damage. Sufficient fuel for 
a continuous run of over ten hours is carried. The engine 
is started by a handle fitted on the fore side of the case, 
which can be worked by two men. The position and 
size of the engine-case is such that only two oars are 
interfered with, but it does not follow that the pro- 
pelling power of the two displaced men is entirely lost, 
because they can double bank some of the other oars 
when necessary. 

Fitted thus, the lifeboat was tested in all sorts of 
weather during the month of April, and it was found that 
she could be di^iven fairly well against a sea by means of 
the motor alone ; but when it was used to assist the sails 
the true use of the motor as an auxiliary became apparent, 
and the boat would work to windward in a way previously 
unattainable. Neither the pitching or rolling in a seaway, 
in any weather then obtainable, interfered at all with the 
proper working or starting of the motor, which worked 

159 



MODERN MECHANISM 

steadily and well throughout. Having been through 
these preliminary tests, she was more severely tried. 
Running over the measured mile with full crew and stores 
on board, she developed over six knots an hour. The 
men were then replaced by equivalent weights lashed to 
the thwarts, and she was capsized by a crane four times, 
her sails set and the sheets made fast, yet she righted 
herself without difficulty. An interesting feature of the 
capsize was that the motor stopped automatically when 
the boat had partly turned over. This arrangement pre- 
vents her from running away from the crew if they should 
be pitched out. The motor started again after a few 
turns of the handle, so proving that the protecting com- 
partment had kept the water at bay. 

From this account it is obvious that a valuable aid 
to life-saving at sea has been found. The steam lifeboat, 
propelled by a jet of water squirted out by pumps below 
the water line, is satisfactory so long as the boat keeps 
upright. But in event of an upset the fires must neces- 
sarily be extinguished. No such disability attends the 
petrol-driven craft, and we shall be glad to think that the 
brave fellows who risk their lives in the cause of humanity 
will be spared the intense physical toil which a long row 
to windward in a heavy sea entails. The general adoption 
of this new ally will take time, and must depend largely 
on the liberality of subscribers to the fine institution 
responsible for lifeboat maintenance ; but it is satisfac- 
tory to learn that the Committee has given the boat in 
question a practical chance in the open sea by stationing 
her at Newhaven, Sussex, as a unit in the lifeboat fleet. 



1 60 



THE MOTOR AFLOAT 



MOTOE FISHING BOATS 

It is a pretty sight to watch a fishing fleet enter the 
harbour with its catch, taken far away on the waters 
beyond the horizon while landsmen slept. The sails, 
some white, some brown, some wondrously patched and 
bearing the visible marks of many a hard fight with the 
wind, belly out in graceful lines as the boats slip past the 
harbour entrance. No wonder that the painter has so 
often found subjects for his canvas and brushes among the 
toilers of the deep. 

But underlying the romance and picturesqueness of the 
craft there is stern business. Those boats may be return- 
ing with full cargoes, such as will yield good profits to 
owner and crew ; or, on the other hand, the hold may be 
empty, and many honest hearts be heavy at the thought 
of wasted days, A few years ago the Yarmouth herring 
fleet is said to have returned on one occasion with but a 
single fish to the credit of the whole fleet ! This might 
have been a mere figure of speech ; it stands, at any 
rate, for many thousands of pounds lost by the hardy 
fishermen. 

When the boats have been made fast, the fish, if already 
disentangled from the nets, is usually sold at once by 
auction, the price depending largely on the individual 
size and freshness of the " catch.**** Now, with the increase 
in the number of boats and from other causes, the waters 
near home have been so well fished over that much longer 
journeys must be made to the "grounds'" than were for- 
merly necessary. Trawling, that is, dragging a large 
bag-net — its mouth kept open by a beam and weights — 
L i6i 



MODERN MECHANISM 

along the bottom of the sea for flatfish, has long been 
performed by powerful steam vessels, which may any day 
be seen leaving or entering Hull or Grimsby in large 
numbers. Surface fishing, wherein a long drift-net, 
weighted at its lower edge and buoyed at the upper edge 
to enable it to keep a perpendicular position, is used for 
herring and mackerel, and in this industry wind power 
alone is generally used by British fishermen. 

The herring-boat sets sail for the grounds in the morn- 
ing, and at sundown should be at the scene of action. 
Her nets, aggregating, perhaps, a mile in length, are then 
" shot,**" and the boat drifts along towing the line behind 
her. If fish appear, the nets are hauled in soon after 
daybreak by the aid of a capstan. The labour of bring- 
ing a mile of nets aboard is very severe — so severe, in 
fact, that the larger boats in many cases employ the help 
of a small steam-engine. During the return voyage the 
fish is freed from the meshes, and thrown into the hold 
ready for sale as soon as land is reached. 

Fish, whether for salting or immediate consumption, 
should be fresh. No class of human food seems to dete- 
riorate so quickly when life is extinct as the " denizens of 
the deep,''*' so that it is of primary importance to fisher- 
men that their homeward journey should be performed in 
the shortest possible time. If winds are contrary or absent 
there may be such delay as to need the liberal use of salt, 
and even that useful commodity will not stave off* a fall 
in value. 

It therefore often happens that a really fine catch 
arrives at its market in a condition which spells heavy 
loss to the catchers. A slow return also means missing a 

162 



THE MOTOR AFLOAT 

day's fishing, which may represent £200 to £300. For 
this reason the Dogger Bank fishing fleet is served by 
steam tenders, which carry off the catches as they are 
made, and thus obviate the necessity for a boat"*s return to 
port when its hold is full. Such a system will not, how- 
ever, be profitable to boats owned by individuals, and 
working within a comparatively short distance of land. 

Each boat must depend on its particular powers, the 
first to return getting rather better prices than those 
which come "with the crowd."' So steam power is in 
some cases installed as an auxiliary to the sails, though 
it may entail the outlay of £2,000 as first cost, and a big 
bill for upkeep and management. " Small "' men cannot 
afford this expense, and they would be doomed to watch 
their richer brethren slip into the market before them 
had not the explosion motor come to their aid. This 
just meets their case ; it is not nearly so expensive to 
install as steam, occupies much less room, is easier to 
handle, and therefore saves the expense of trained at- 
tendants. 

Fishermen are notoriously conservative. To them a 
change from methods sanctioned by many years of prac- 
tice is abhorrent. What sufficed for their fathers, they 
say, should suffice for them. Their trade is so un- 
certain that a bad season would see no return for the 
cost of the motor, since, where no fish are caught, it 
makes little difference whether the journey to port be 
quick or slow. 

However, the motor is bound to come. It has been 
applied to fishing boats with marked success. While the 
nets are out, the motor is stopped, and costs not a penny 

163 



MODERN MECHANISM 

more till the time comes for hauling in. Then it is geared 
up with a capstan, and saves the crew much of their 
hardest work. When all is aboard, the capstan hands 
over the power to the screw, which, together with the 
sails, propels the vessel homewards at a smart pace. The 
skipper is certain of making land in good time for the 
market ; and he will be ready for the out voyage next 
morning. Another point in favour of the motor is that, 
when storms blow up, the fleet will be able to run for 
shelter even if the wind be adverse ; and we should hear 
less of the sacrifice of life which makes sad reading after 
every severe gale. 

As to the machinery to be employed, Mr, F. Miller, of 
Oulton Broad, who first applied the gas-motor to a fishing 
smack — the Pioneer — considers that a 12 h.-p. engine 
would suffice as an auxiliary for small craft of the class 
found in the northern parts of Great Britain. The 
Norfolk boats would require a 30 h.p. ; and a full-powered 
boat — i,e. one that could depend on the motor entirely — 
should carry a three-cylinder engine of 80 h.p. In any 
case, the machinery must be enclosed and well protected; 
while the lubrication arrangements should be such as to 
be understood easily by unskilled persons, and absolutely 
reliable. Owing to the moisture in the atmosphere the 
ordinary high-tension coil ignition, such as is used on 
most motor-cars, would not prove efficient, and it is there- 
fore replaced by a low-tension type which makes and 
breaks the primary circuit by means of a rocking arm 
working through the walls of the cylinder. Lastly, all 
parts which require occasional examination or adjustment 
must be easily accessible, so that they may receive proper 

164 



THE MOTOR AFLOAT 

attention at sea, and not send the vessel home a "lame 
duck "*' under sail. 

The advantages of the motor are so great that the 
Scotch authorities have taken the matter up seriously, 
appointing an expert to make inquiries. It is therefore 
quite possible that before many years have elapsed the 
motor will play an important part in the task of supplying 
our breakfast tables with the dainty sole or toothsome 
herring. 

A MOTOR FIRE FLOAT 

As a good instance of this particular adaptation of the 
explosion engine to fire-extinction work, we may quote the 
apparatus now in attendance on the huge factory of 
Messrs. Huntley and Palmer, the famous Reading biscuit 
makers. The factory lies along the banks of the river 
Kennet, which are joined by bridges so close to the water 
that a steamer could not pass under them. Messrs. Merry- 
weather accordingly built the motor float, 32 feet long, 
9J feet beam, and drawing 27 inches. Two engines, each 
having four cylinders of a total of 30 h.p., drive two sets 
of three-cylinder " Hatfield "^ pumps, which give a continu- 
ous feed to the hose. Engines and pumps are mounted on 
a single bed-plate, and are worked separately, unless it be 
found advisable to " Siamese '*' the hoses to feed a single 
1^-inch jet, which can be flung to a great height. 

One of the most interesting features of the float is the 
method of propulsion. As its movements are limited to 
a few hundred yards, the fitting of a screw was considered 
unnecessary, its place being taken by four jets, two at 
each end, through which water is forced against the 
outside water by the extinguishing pumps. These will 

i6s 



MODERN MECHANISM 

move the float either forward or astern, steer her, or turn 
her round. 

So here once again petrol has trodden upon the toes of 
Giant Steam : and very effectively, too. 

THE MECHANISM OF THE MOTOR BOAT 

In many points the marine motor reproduces the 
machinery built into cars. The valve arrangements, 
governors, design of cylinders and water-jackets are prac- 
tically the same. Small boats carry one cylinder or 
perhaps two, just as a small car is content with the same 
number; but a racing or heavy boat employs four, six, 
and, in one case at least, twelve cylinders, which abolish 
all "dead points'*' and enable the screw to work very 
slowly without engine vibration, as the di'ive is con- 
tinuous. 

The large marine motor is designed to run at a slower 
rate than the land motor, and its cylinders are, therefore, 
of greater size. Some of the cylinders exhibited in the 
Automobile Show at the London "Olympia^^ seemed 
enormous when compared with those doing duty on even 
high-powered cars ; being more suggestive of the parts of 
an electric lighting plant than of a machine which has to 
be tucked away in a boat. 

Except for the reversing gear, gearing is generally 
absent on the motor boat. The chauffeur has not to 
keep changing his speed lever from one notch to another 
according to the nature of the country. On the sea con- 
ditions are more consistently favourable or unfavourable, 
and, as in a steamboat, speed is controlled by opening or 
closing the throttle. The screw will always be turned by 

1 66 



THE MOTOR AFLOAT 

the machinery, but its effect on the boat must depend 
on its size and the forces acting in opposition to it. Since 
water is yielding, it does not offfer a parallel to the road. 
Should a car meet a hill too steep for its climbing powers, 
the engines must come to rest. The wheel does not slip 
on the road, and so long as there is sufficient power it will 
force the car up the severest incline ; as soon as the power 
proves too small for the task in hand the car " lies down." 
In a motor boat, however, the engine may keep the screw 
moving without doing more against wind and tide than 
prevent the boat from " advancing backwards."'' The only 
way to make the boat efficient to meet all possible con- 
ditions would be to increase the size or alter the pitch of 
the screw, and to install more powerful engines. " Gear- 
ing down"'' — as in a motor-car — being useless, the only 
mechanism needed on a motor boat in connection with 
the transmission of power from cylinders to screw is the 
reversing gear. 

Though engines have been designed with devices for 
reversing by means of the cams operating the valves, the 
reversal of the screw's movement is generally effected 
through gears on the transmission apparatus. The sim- 
plest arrangement, though not the most perfect mechanic- 
ally, is a reversible screw, the blades of which can be made 
to feather this way or that by the movement of a lever. 
Sometimes two screws are employed, with opposite twists, 
the one doing duty while the other revolves idly. But for 
fast and heavy boats a single solid screw with immovable 
blades is undoubtedly preferable ; its reversal being 
effected by means of friction clutches. The inelasticity 
of the explosion motor renders it necessary that the 

167 



MODERN MECHANISM 

change be made gradually, or the kick of the screw 
against the motor might cause breakages. The clutch, 
gradually engaging with a disc revolved by the propeller 
shaft, first stops the antagonistic motion, and then con- 
verts it into similar motion. Many devices have been 
invented to bring this about, but as a description of them 
would not be interesting, we pass on to a consideration of 
the fuel used in the motor boat. 

Petrol has the upper hand at present, yet heavier oil 
must eventually prevail, on account both of its cheapness 
and of its greater safety. The only objection to its use 
is the difficulty attending the starting of the engine with 
kerosene ; and this is met by using petrol till the engine 
and carburetter are hot, and then switching on the petro- 
leum. When once the carburetter has been warmed by 
exhaust gases to about 270° Fahrenheit it will work as 
well with the heavy as with the light fuel. 

Since any oil or spirit may leak from its tanks and 
cause danger, an effort has been made to substitute solid 
for liquid fuel. The substance selected is naphthalene — 
well known as a protector of clothes against moths. At 
the "Olympia'"" Automobile Exhibition of 1905 the 
writer saw an engine — the Chenier Leon — which had 
been run with balls of this chemical, fed to the carbu- 
retter through a melting-pot. For a description of this 
engine we must once again have recourse to the Motor 
Boat. The inventors had decided to test its performance 
wdth petrol, paraffin, and naphthalene respectively. " The 
motor, screwed to a testing bench, was connected by the 
usual belt to a dynamo, so that the power developed under 
each variety of fuel might be electrically measured, and 

i6S 



THE MOTOR AFLOAT 

was then started up on petrol. As soon as the parts were 
sufficiently warmed up by the exhaust heat, the petrol was 
turned off, and the motor run for some time on paraffin, 
until sufficient naphthalene was thoroughly melted to the 
consistency of a thick syrup. The naphthalene was then 
fed to its mixing valve through a small pipe dipping into 
the bottom of the melting-pot, and thence sprayed into 
the induction chamber to carburate the air therein. 
Hitherto, the motor had given an average of 12 electrical 
h.p. at 1,000 revolutions per minute, and it was noticed 
that as soon as the change was made, this was fully 
maintained. This test, when continued, bore out others 
which had previously been made by the firm, and showed 
the consumption of each of the three fuels to be a little 
over 12 lbs. per hour for the 12 electrical h.p. given by the 
motor. Still, the paraffin and naphthalene worked out 
about equal as to cost, and considering that the latter was 
in its purest form, as sold for a clothes preservative, we 
have yet to see how much better its commercial showing 
will be with lower grades, assuming beforehand that its 
thermal efficiency and behaviour are as good. 

"On the ground of convenience naphthalene, as a solid, 
is a very long way in front of its liquid rival, kerosene. Its 
exhaust, too, was much freer from odour, and it appears 
that, unlike paraffin, it forms neither tar, soot, nor sticky 
matter, but, on the contrary, has a tendency to brighten 
all valves, cylinders, walls, etc., any little deposit being a 
light powder which would be carried into the exhaust."' 



169 



MODERN MECHANISM 

THE TWO-STROKE MOTOR 

In the ordinary "Otto-cycle*" motor an explosion occurs 
once in every two revolutions of the crank. With a single 
cylinder the energy of the explosion must be stored up in a 
heavy fly-wheel to carry the engine through the three other 
operations of scavenging, sucking in a fresh charge, and 
compressing it preparatory to the next explosion. With 
two cylinders the fly-wheel can be made lighter, as an 
explosion occurs every revolution ; and in a four-cylinder 
engine we might almost dispense with the wheel alto- 
gether, since the drive is continuous, just as in a double- 
cylindered steam-engine. 

The two-stroke motor, i,e, one which makes an explo- 
sion for every revolution, is an attempt to unite the 
advantages of a two-cylindered engine of the Otto type 
wuth the lightness of a single -cylindered engine. As it 
has been largely used for motor boats, especially in 
America, a short description of its working may be given 
here. 

In the first place, all moving cylinder valves are done 
away with, their functions being performed by openings 
covered and opened by the movements of the piston. 
The crank chamber is quite gas-tight, and has in it a 
non-return valve through which vapour is drawn from 
the carburetter every time the piston moves away from 
the centre. There is also a pipe connecting it with the 
lower part of the cylinder, but the other end of this is 
covered by the piston until it has all but finished its 
stroke. 

Let us suppose that an explosion has just taken place^ 

170 



THE MOTOR AFLOAT 

The piston rushes downwards, compressing the gas in the 
crank chamber to some extent. When the stroke is three- 
parts performed a second hole, on the opposite side of the 
cylinder from the aperture already referred to, is un- 
covered by the piston, and the exploded gases partly 
escape. Immediately afterwards the second hole is un- 
covered also, and the fresh charge rushes in from the 
crank case, being deflected upwards by a plate on the top 
of the piston, so as to help drive out the exhaust pro- 
ducts. The returning piston covers both holes and com- 
presses the charge till the moment of explosion, when the 
process is repeated. It may be said in favour of this type 
of engine that it is very simple and free from vibration ; 
against it that, owing to the imperfect scavenging of 
exploded charges, it does not develop so much power as 
an Otto-cycle engine of equal cylinder dimensions; also 
that it is apt to overheat, while it uses double the 
amount of electric current. 

MOTOR BOATS FOR THE NAVY 

A country which, like England, depends on the command 
of the sea for its very existence may well keep a sharp 
eye on any invention that tends to render that command 
more certain. In recent years we have heard a lot said, 
and read a lot written, about the importance of swift 
boats which in war time could be launched against a 
hostile fleet, armed with the deadly torpedo. The Russo- 
Japanese War has given us a fine example of what can be 
accomplished by daring men and swift torpedo craft. 

For some reason or other the British Navy has not kept 
abreast of France in the number of her torpedo vessels. 

171 



MODERN MECHANISM 

Reference to official figures shows that, while our neigh- 
bours can boast 280 " hornets,"'"' we have to our credit 
only 225. In the House of Commons, on August 10th, 
1904, Mr. Henry Norman, m.p., asked the Secretary of 
the Admiralty whether, in view of the proofs recently 
afforded of trustworthiness, speed, simplicity, and com- 
paratively low cost of small vessels propelled by petrol 
motors, he would consider the advisability of testing this 
class of vessel in His Majesty's Navy. The Secretary 
replied that the Admiralty had kept a watch on the 
recent trials and meant to make practical tests with 
motor pinnaces. In view of the danger that would accom- 
pany the storage of petrol on board ship, the paraffin 
motor was preferable for naval purposes ; and an 80 h.p. 
four-cylindered motor of this type has been ordered from 
Messrs. Vosper, of Portsmouth. 

Mr. Norman, writing in The World's Work on the sub- 
ject, says : " There can be no question that such high 
speed and cheap construction (80 h.p. giving in the little l| 
boat as much speed — to consider that only — as eight 
thousand in the big boat) point to the use of motor boats 
for naval purposes in the near future. A torpedo boat 
exists only to carry one or two torpedoes within launch- 
ing distance of the enemy. The smaller and cheaper she 
can be, and the fewer men she carries, provided always 
she be able to face a fairly rough sea, the better. Now 
the ordinary steam torpedo boat carries perhaps twenty 
men, and costs anything from £50,000 to £100,000. A 
motor boat of equal or greater speed could probably be 
built for £15,000, and would carry a crew of two men. 
Six motor boats, therefore, could be built for the cost of 

172 



THE MOTOR AFLOAT 

[one steamboat, and their total crews would not number 

[ so many as the crew of the one. Moreover, they could all 

[be slung on board a single vessel, and only set afloat near 

[the scene of action. A prophetic friend of mine declares 

[that the most dangerous warship of the future will be a 

[big vessel, unarmoured and only lightly armed, but of the 

[utmost possible speed, carrying twenty or more motor 

[torpedo boats slung on davits. She will rely on her 

[greater speed for her own safety, if attacked ; she will 

^approach as near the scene of action as possible, and will 

drop all her little boats into the water, and they will 

make a simultaneous attack. Their hulls would be clean, 

their machinery in perfect order, their crews fresh and 

full of energy, and it would be strange if one of the 

twenty did not strike home. And the destruction of a 

battleship or great cruiser at the cost of a score of these 

little wasps, manned by two-score men, would be a very 

fine naval bargain.'*'' 

Mr. Norman omits one recommendation that must in 
active service count heavily in favour of the motor boat, 
and that is its practical invisibility in the day or at night 
time. The destroyer, when travelling at high speed, 
betrays its presence by clouds of smoke or red-hot funnels. 
The motor boat is entirely free from such dangerous 
accompaniments ; the exhaust from the cylinders is in- 
visible in every way. The very absence of funnels must 
also be in itself a great advantage. The eye, roving over 
the waters, might easily ''pick up^'* a series of stumpy, 
black objects of hard outline ; but the motor boat, riding 
low and flatly on the waves, would probably escape notice, 
especially when a searchlight alone can detect its approach. 

173 



MODERN MECHANISM 

It may reasonably be said that the Admiralty knows 
its own business best, and that the outsider''s opinion is 
not wanted. The "man in the street **' has become 
notorious for his paper generalship and strategy, and 
fallen somewhat into disrepute as an adviser on military 
and naval matters. Yet we must not forget this : that 
many — we might say most — of the advances in naval 
mechanisms, armour, and weapons of defence have not 
been evolved by naval men, but by the highly educated 
and ingenious civilian who, unblinded by precedent or 
professional conservatism, can watch the game even better 
in some respects than the players themselves, and see what 
the next move should be. That move may be rather un- 
orthodox — like the application of steam to men-o''-war — 
but none the less the correct one under the circumstances. 
We allowed other nations to lead us in the matter of 
breech -loading cannon, armour-plate, submarines, the 
abolition of combustible material on warships. Shall we 
also allow them to get ahead with motor boats, and begin 
to consider that there may be something in motor 
auxiliaries for the fleet when they are already well sup- 
plied? If there is a country which should above all 
others lose no time in adding the motor to her means 
of defence, that country is Great Britain. 



174 



CHAPTER IX 
THE MOTOR CYCLE 

IN 1884 the Count de Dion, working in partnership 
with Messrs, Bouton and Trepardonx, produced a 
practical steam tricycle. Two years later appeared 
a somewhat similar vehicle by the same makers which 
attained the remarkable speed of forty miles an hour. 
Mr. Serpollet, now famous for his steam cars, built 
at about the same time a three-wheeled steam tri- 
cycle, which also proved successful. But the continuous 
stoking of the miniature boilers, and the difficulty of 
keeping them properly supplied with water, prevented 
the steam-driven cycle from becoming popular ; and when 
the petrol motor had proved its value on heavy vehicles, 
inventors soon saw that the explosion engine was very 
much better suited for a light automobile than had been 
the cumbrous fittings inseparable from the employment 
of steam. 

By 1895 a neat petrol tricycle was on the market ; and 
after the de Dion machines had given proof in races of 
their capabilities, they at once sprang into popular favour. 
For the next five years the motor tricycle was a common 
sight in France, where the excellent roads and the free- 
dom from the restrictions prevailing on the other side of 
the Channel recommended it to cyclists who wished for a 

175 



MODERN MECHANISM 

more speedy method of locomotion than unaided legs 
could give, yet could not afford to purchase a car. 

The motor bicycle soon appeared in the field. The 
earlier types of the two-wheeled motor were naturally 
clumsy and inefficient. The need of a lamp constantly 
burning to ignite the charges in the cylinder proved a 
much greater nuisance on the bicycle than on the tricycle, 
which carried its driving gear behind the saddle. The 
writer well remembers trying an early pattern of the 
Werner motor bicycle in the Champs Elysees in 1897, 
and his alarm when the owner, while starting the blow- 
lamp on the steering pillar, was suddenly enveloped in 
flames, which played havoc with his hair, and might easily 
have caused more serious injuries. Riders were naturally 
nervous at carrying a flame near the handle-bars, so close 
to a tank of inflammable petrol liable to leak and catch 
fire. 

The advent of electrical ignition for the gaseous charges 
opened the way for great improvements, and the motor 
bicycle slowly but surely ousted its heavier three-wheeled 
rival. Designs were altered ; the engine was placed in or 
below the frame instead of over the front wheel, and made 
to drive the back wheel by means of a leather belt. In 
the earliest types the motive force had either been trans- 
mitted by belt to the front wheel, or directly to the rear 
wheel by the piston rods working cranks on its spindle. 

The progress of the motor bicycle has, since 1900, been 
rapid, and many thousands of machines are now in use. 
The fact that the engines must necessarily be very small 
compels all possible saving in weight, and an ability to 
run continuously at very high speeds without showing 

tj6 



THE MOTOR CYCLE 

serious wear and tear. Details have therefore been per- 
fected, and though at the present day no motor cyclist of 
wide experience can claim immunity from trouble with 
his speedy little mount, a really well-designed and well- 
built machine proves wonderfully efficient, and opens 
possibilities of locomotion to " the man of moderate 
means '** which were beyond the reach of the rider of a 
pedal-driven bicycle. 

In its way the motor cycle may claim to be one of the most 
marvellous products of human mechanical skill. Weight 
has been reduced until a power equal to that of three 
horses can be harnessed to a vehicle which, when stored 
with sufficient petrol and electricity to carry it and rider 
150 miles, scales about a hundredweight. It will pursue 
its even course up and down hill at an average of twenty 
or more miles an hour, the only attention it requires 
teing an occasional charge of oil squirted into the air- 
tight case in which the crank and fly-wheels revolve. 
The consumption of fuel is ridiculously small, since an 
economical engine will cover fifteen miles on a pint of 
spirit, which costs about three-halfpence. 

Practically all motor-cycle engines work on the " Otto- 
cycle"' principle. Motors which give an impulse every 
revolution by compressing the charge in the crank-case or 
in a separate cylinder, so that it may enter the working 
cylinder under pressure, have been tried, but hitherto with 
but moderate success. There is, however, a growing ten- 
dency to compass an explosion every revolution by fitting 
two cylinders, and from time to time four-cylindered cycles 
have appeared. The disadvantages attending the care 
and adjustment of so many moving parts has been the 
M 177 



MODERN MECHANISM 

cause of foui^-cylindered cycle motors being unsuccessful 
from a commercial standpoint, though riders who are pre- 
pared to risk extra trouble and expense may find compen- 
sation in the quiet, vibrationless drive of a motor which 
gives two impulses for every turn of the fly-wheel. 

The acme of lightness in proportion to power developed 
has been attained by the " Barry " engine, in which the 
cylinders and their attachments are made to revolve about 
a fixed crank, and perform themselves the function of a 
fly-wheel. So great is the saving of weight that the 
makers claim a horse-power for every four pounds scaled 
by the engines ; thus, a 3J h.p. motor would only just 
tip the beam against one stone. As the writer has 
personally inspected a Barry engine, he is able to give a 
brief account of its action. 

It has two cylinders, arranged to face one another on 
opposite sides of a central air-tight crank-case, the inner 
end of each cylinder opening into the case. Both pistons 
advance towards, and recede from, the centre of the case 
simultaneously. The air-and-gas mixture is admitted 
into the crank-case through a hole in the fixed crank- 
spindle, communicating with a pipe leading from the car- 
buretter. The inlet is controlled by a valve, which opens 
while the pistons are parting, and closes when they ap- 
proach one another. 

We will suppose that the engine is just starting. Tlie 
pistons are in a position nearest to the crank-case. As 
they separate they draw a charge — equal in volume to 
double the cubical contents of one cylinder — into the 
crank-case through its inlet valve. During the return 
stroke the charge is squeezed, and passes through a valve ( 

178 



THE MOTOR CYCLE 

into a chamber which forms, as it were, the fourth spoke 
of a four-spoked wheel, of which the other three spokes 
are the cylinders and the "silencer.*" This chamber is 
connected by pipes to the inlet valves of the cylinders, 
which are mechanically opened alternately by the action 
of special cams on the crank-shaft. The cylinder which 
gets the contents of the compression chamber receives 
considerably more "mixture'' than would flow in under 
natural suction, and the compression is therefore greater 
than in the ordinary type of cycle motor, and the explo- 
sion more violent. Hence it comes about that the cylin- 
ders, which have a bore of only 2 in. and a 2-in. stroke 
for the piston, develop nearly 2 h.p. each. 

It may at first appear rather mysterious how, if the 
cranks are rigidly attached to the cycle frame, any motion 
can be imparted to the driving-wheel. The explanation 
is simple enough : a belt pulley is affixed to one side of 
the crank-case, and revolves with the cylinders, the 
silencer, and compression chamber. The rotation is 
caused by the effort of the piston to get as far as possible 
away from the closed end of the cylinder after an explo- 
sion. Where a crank is movable but the cylinder fixed, 
the former would be turned round ; where the crank is 
immovable but the cylinder movable, the travel of the 
piston is possible only if the cylinder moves round the 
crank. A series of explosions following one another in 
rapid succession gives the moving parts of the Barry 
engine sufficient momentum to suck in charges, compress 
them, and eject the burnt gases. The plan is ingenious, 
and as the machine into which this type of engine is built 
weighs altogether only about 70 lbs., the " sport "*' of 

179 



MODERN MECHANISM 

motor cycling is open to those people whose age or want 
of strength would preclude them from the use of the 
heavy mounts which are still to be seen about the roads. 
In the future we may expect to find motor cycles approach 
very closely to a half-hundredweight standard without 
sacrificing the rigidity needful for fast locomotion over 
second-class roads. 

For "pace-making''"' on racing tracks, motor cycles 
ranging up to 24 h.p. have been used; but these are 
essentially "freak'''' machines of no practical value for 
ordinary purposes. Even 3-4 h.p. cycles have set up 
wonderful records, exceeding fifty miles in the hour, a 
speed equal to that of a good express train. In com- 
parison with the feats of motor-cars, their achievements 
may not appear very startling ; but when we consider the 
small size and weight, and the simplicity of the mechanisms 
which propel cycle and rider at nearly a mile a minute, 
the result seems marvellous enough. 

During the last few years the tricycle has again come 
into favour, but with the arrangement of its wheels 
altered ; two steering-wheels being placed in front, and 
a single driving-wheel behind. The main advantage of 
this inversion is that it permits the fixing of a seat in 
front of the driver, in which a passenger can be comfort- 
ably accommodated. The modern "tricar,"^ with its 
high-powered, doubled -cylindered engines, its change- 
speed gears, its friction clutch for bringing the engines 
gradually into action, its forced water circulation for 
cooling the cylinders, and its spring-hung frame, is in 
reality more a car than a cycle, and escapes from the 
former category only on account of the number of its 

i8o 



THE MOTOR CYCLE 

wheels. To the tourist, or to the person who does not 
find pleasure in solitary riding, the tricar offers many 
advantages, and, though decidedly more expensive to 
keep up than a motor bicycle, entails only very modest 
bills in comparison with those which affect many owners 
of cars. 

The development of the motor cycle has been hastened 
and fostered by frequent speed and reliability contests, in 
which the nimble little motor has acquitted itself wonder- 
fully. A hill a mile long, with very steep gradients, has 
been ascended in considerably less than two minutes by 
a 3^ h.p. motor. We read of motor cycles travelling 
from Land's End to John-o'- Groats ; from Calcutta to 
Bombay ; from Sydney to Melbourne ; from Paris to 
Rome — all in phenomenal times considering the physical 
difficulties of the various routes. Such tests prove the en- 
durance of the motor cycle, and pave the way to its use 
in more profitable employments. Volunteer cycling corps 
often include a motor or two, which in active service 
would be most valuable for scouting purposes, especially 
if powerful enough to tow a light machine-gun. Com- 
mercial travellers, fitting a box to the front of a tricar, 
are able to scour the country quickly and inexpensively in 
quest of orders for the firms they represent. The police 
find the motor helpful for patrolling the roads. On the 
Continent, and especially in Germany, town and country 
postmen collect and deliver parcels and letteis with the 
aid of the petrol-driven tricycle, and thereby save much 
time, while improving the service. Before long, " Hark ! 
'tis the twanging horn "*"* will once again herald the post- 
man's approach in a thousand rural districts, but the horn 

i8i 



MODERN MECHANISM 

will not hang from the belt of a horseman, such as the 
poet Cowper describes, but will be secured to the handle- 
bars of a neat tricar. Thus history repeats itself. 

That the motor cycle is still far from perfect almost 
goes without saying; but every year sees a decided ad- 
vance in its design and efficiency. The messy, troublesome 
accumulator will eventually give way to a neat little 
dynamo, which is driven by the engine and creates current 
for exploding the cylinder charges as the machine travels. 
When the cycle is at rest there would then be no fear of 
electricity leaking away through some secret "short cir- 
cuit,"*" since the current ceases with the need for it, but 
starts again when its presence is required. The proper 
cooling of the cylinders has been made an easier matter 
than formerly by the introduction of fans which direct 
a stream of cold air on to the cylinder head. Professor 
H. L. Callendar has shown in a series of experiments that 
a fan, which absorbs only 2 to 3 per cent, of an engine's 
power, will increase the engine's efficiency immensely 
when a low gear is being used for hill climbing, and the 
rate of motion through the air has fallen below that 
requisite to carry off the surplus heat of the motor. If 
an engine maintains a good working temperature when it 
progresses through space two feet for every explosion, 
it would overheat if the amount of progression were, 
through the medium of a change-gear attachment, re- 
duced to one foot, a change which would be advisable on 
a steep hill. The fan then supplies the deficiency by 
imitating the natural rush of air. As Professor Callendar 
says : " The most important point for the motor cyclist is 
to secure the maximum of power with the minimum of 

182 




o 

< 

Pi 
o 



I 



THE MOTOR CYCLE 

weight. With this object, the first essentials are a 
variable speed gear of wide range, and some efficient 
method of cooling to prevent overheating at low gears. . . . 
It is unscientific to double the weight and power of the 
machine in order to climb a few hills, when the same 
result can be secured with a variable gear. It is un- 
necessary to resort to the weight and complication of 
water cooling when a light fan will do all that is re- 
quired.'*'' 

Thus, with the aid of a fan and a gear which will give 
at least two speeds, the motor cyclist can, with an engine 
of 2 h.p., climb almost any hill, even without resorting to 
the help of the pedals. His motion is therefore practically 
continuous. To be comfortable, he desires immunity from 
the vibration which quick movement over any but first- 
class roads sets up in the machine, especially in its forward 
parts. Several successful spring forks and pneumatic 
devices have been invented to combat the vibration bogy ; 
and these, in conjunction with a spring pillar for the 
saddle, which can itself be made most resilient, relieve the 
rider almost entirely of the jolting which at the end of a 
long day'*s ride is apt to induce a feeling of exhaustion. 
The motor tricycle, which once had a rather bad name for 
its rough treatment of the nerves, is also now furnished 
with springs to all wheels, and approximates to the car in 
the smoothness of its progression. 

Assuming, then, that we have motor vehicles so light 
as to be very manageable, sufficiently powerful to climb 
severe gradients, reliable, comfortable to ride, and 
economical in their consumption of fuel and oil, we are 
able to foresee that they will modify the conditions of 

183 



MODERN MECHANISM 

social existence. The ordinary pedal-driven cycle has 
made it possible for the worker to live much fether from 
his work than formerly. "To-morrow, with a motor 
bicycle, his home may be fifteen miles away, and those 
extra miles will make a great difference in rent, and in the 
health of his family. In fact, it almost promises to re- 
concile the Garden City ideal with the industrial con- 
ditions of to-day, by enabling a man to work in the town, 
and have his home in the country. This advantage 
applies, of course, less to London than to other great 
cities, on account of the seemingly endless miles of streets 
to be traversed before the country is reached. In most 
manufacturing centres, however, the motoring workman 
could get to his cottage home by a journey of a few miles. 
Even in London, moreover, this disadvantage will be 
overcome to a large extent in the future, for it is as 
certain as anything of the kind can be that we must 
ultimately have special highways, smooth, dustless, re- 
served for motor traffic, leading out of London in the 
principal directions. . . . My own conviction is that 
motor cycling, the simplest, the quickest, the cheapest 
independent locomotion that has ever been known, is 
destined to enjoy enormous development. I believe that 
within a few years the motor bicycle and tricycle will be 
sold by hundreds of thousands, and that many of the 
social and industrial conditions of our time will be greatly 
and beneficially affected by them.''* 

* Henry Norman, Esq., m.p., in The World's Worh 



184 



CHAPTER X 
FIRE ENGINES 

A GOOD motto to blazon over the doors of a fire- 
brigade station would be " He gives help twice who 
gives help quickly.*" The spirit of it is certainly 
shown by the brave men who, as soon as the warning 
signal comes, spring to the engines and in a few minutes 
are careering at full speed to the scene of operations. 

Speed and smartness have for many years past been 
associated with our fire brigades. We read how horses 
are always kept ready to be led to the engines ; how their 
harness is dropped on to them and deft fingers set the 
buckles right in a twinkling, so that almost before an 
onlooker has time to realise what is happening the sturdy 
animals are beating the ground with flying hoofs. And 
few dwellers in large cities have not heard the cry of the 
firemen, as it rises from an indistinct murmur into a loud 
shout, before which the traffic, however dense, melts away 
to the side of the road and leaves a clear passage for the 
engines, driven at high speed and yet with such skill that 
accidents are of rare occurrence. The noise, the gleam of 
the polished helmets, the efforts of the noble animals, which 
seem as keen as the men themselves to reach the fire, com- 
bine to paint a scene which lingers long in the memoiy. 
But efficient as the " horsed *" engine is, it has its 

185 



MODERN MECHANISM 

limitations. Animal strength and endurance are not an 
indefinite quantity; while the fireman grudges even the 
few short moments which are occupied by the inspanning 
of the team. In many towns, therefore, we find the 
mechanically propelled fire engine coming into favour. 
The power for working the pumps is now given a second 
duty of turning the driving-wheels. A parallel can be 
found in the steam-engine used for threshing-machines, 
which once had to be towed by horses, but now travels 
of itself, dragging machine and other vehicles behind it. 

The earlier types of automobile fire engines used the 
boiler's steam to move them over the road. Liverpool, 
a very enterprising city as regards the extinction of fire, 
has for some time past owned a powerful steamer, which 
can be turned out within a minute of the call, can travel 
at any speed up to thirty miles an hour, and can pump 
500 gallons per minute continuously. Its success has 
led to the purchase of other motor engines, some fitted 
with a chemical apparatus, which, by the action of acid 
on a solution of soda in closed cylinders, is enabled to 
fling water impregnated with carbonic acid gas on to the 
fire the moment it arrives within working distance of 
the conflagration, and gives very valuable " first aid '** 
while the pumping apparatus is being got into order. 

As might reasonably be expected, the petrol motor 
has found a fine field for its energies in connection with 
fire extinction. Since it occupies comparatively little 
space, more accommodation can be allowed for the fire- 
men and gear. Furthermore, a petrol engine can be 
started in a few seconds by a turn of a handle, whereas 
a steamer is delayed until steam has been generated. 

186 



FIRE ENGINES 

Messrs. Merryweather have built a four - cylindered, 
30 h.p. petrol fire engine capable of a speed of forty 
miles an hour. It has two systems of ignition — the 
magneto (or small dynamo) and the ordinary accumulator 
and coil — so that electrical breakdowns are not likely to 
occur. A fast motor of this kind, with a pumping 
capacity of SOO gallons per minute, is peculiarly suited 
for large country estates, where it can be made to 
perform household or farm duties when not required 
for its primary purpose. Considering the great number 
of country mansions, historically interesting, and full 
of artistic treasures, which England boasts, it is a matter 
for regret that such an engine is not always included 
among the appliances with which every such property 
is furnished. How often we read "Old mansion totally 
destroyed by fire,"' which usually means that in a few 
short hours priceless pictures, furniture, and other objects 
of art have been destroyed, because help, when it did 
come, arrived too late. Owners are, however, more keenly 
alive to their responsibilities now than formerly. The 
small hand-worked engine, or the hydrant of moderate 
pressure, is not considered a sufficient guard for the house 
and its contents. In many establishments the electric 
lighting engines are designed to work either the dynamo 
or a set of pumps as occasion may demand ; or the motor 
is mounted on wheels so that it may be easily dragged 
by hand to any desired spot. 

The "latest thing'"* in motor fil-e engines is one which 
carries a fire-escape with it, in addition to water-flinging 
machinery. An engine of this type is to be found in 
some of the London suburbs, A chemical cylinder lies 

187 



MODERN MECHANISM 

under the driver**s seat, where it is well out of the way, 
and coiled beside it is its reel of hose. The " escape ^' 
rests on the top of the vehicle, the wheels hanging over 
the rear end, while the top projects some distance in 
front of the steering wheels. The ladder, of telescopic 
design, can be extended to fifty feet as soon as it has 
been lowered to the ground. Since the saving of life 
is even more important than the saving of property, it 
is very desirable that a means of escape should be at 
hand at the earliest possible moment after an outbreak. 
This combination apparatus enables the brigade to nip 
a fire in the bud, if it is still a comparatively small affair, 
and also to rescue any people whose exit may have been cut 
off* by the fire having started on or near the staircases. 

The Wolseley Motor-Car Company has established a 
type of chemical motor fire engine which promises to 
be very successful. A 20 h.p. motor is placed forward 
under the frame to keep the centre of gravity low. 
When fully laden, it carries a crew of eight men, two 
9 -foot ladders, two portable chemical extinguishers, a 
50 -gallon chemical cylinder, and a reel on which is 
wound a hose fifty-three yards long. The wheels are a 
combination of the wooden " artillery **** and the wire 
^^spider,'** wires being strung from the outer end of the 
hub to the outer ends of the wooden spokes to give 
them increased power to resist the strain of sudden turns 
or collisions. An artillery wheel, not thus reinforced, is apt 
to buckle sideways and snap its spokes when twisted at all. 

England has always led the way in matters relating to 
fire extinction, and to her is due the credit of first har- 
nessing mechanical motive power to the fire engine. Other 

i88 



FIRE ENGINES 

countries are following her example, and consequently we 
find fire apparatus moved by the petrol motor in places so 
far apart as Cape Town, Valparaiso, Mauritius, Sydney, 
Berlin, New York, Montreal. There can be no doubt but 
that in a very few years horse-traction will be abandoned 
by the brigades of our large towns. It has been suggested 
that the fire-pump of the future will be driven by elec- 
tricity drawn from switches on the street mains ; enough 
current being stored in accumulators to move the pump 
from station to fire. In such a case it would be possible 
to use very powerful pumps, as an electric motor is 
extremely vigorous for its size and weight. Even to-day 
steam fire engines can fling 2,000 gallons per minute, and 
fire floats (for use on the water) considerably more. Pos- 
sibly the engine of to-morrow will pour 5,000 gallons 
a minute on the flames if it can get that amount from the 
water mains, and so render it unnecessary to summon in 
a large number of engines to quell a big conflagration. 
Three hundred thousand gallons an hour ought to check 
a very considerable " blaze.*" 

The force with which a jet of water leaves the huge 
nozzle of a powerful engine is so great that it would 
seriously injure a spectator at a distance of fifty yards. 
The " kick-back '*'' of the water on the nozzle is sometimes 
sufficient to overcome the power of one man to hold the 
nozzle in position with his hands, and it becomes needful 
to provide supports with pointed ends to stick into the 
ground, or hooks which can be attached to the rungs of a 
ladder. For an attack on the upper storeys of a house a 
special " water tower"" is much used in America. It con- 
sists of a lattice-work iron frame, about twenty ilve feet 

189 



MODERN MECHANISM 

long, inside which slides an extensible iron tube five inches 
in diameter. The tower is attached to one end of a 
wagon of unusual length and breadth, and is raised to a 
vertical position by a rack gearing with a quadrant built 
into its base below the trunnions or pivots on which it 
swings. Carbonic acid gas, generated in a cylinder carried 
on the wagon, works a piston connected with the racks, 
and on a tap being turned slowly brings the tower to the 
perpendicular, when it is locked. The telescopic tube, 
carrying the hose inside it, is then pulled up by windlasses, 
until the 2J-inch nozzle is nearly fifty feet from the 
ground. The nozzle itself can be rotated from below by 
rods and gearing, and the angle of the stream regulated 
by a rope. If several engines simultaneously deliver 
their water to the tower hoses 1,000 gallons a minute can 
be concentrated in a continuous 2^-inch jet on to the fire. 
The ordinary horsed fire engine is simple in its design 
and parts. The vertical boiler contains a number of 
nearly horizontal water tubes, which offer a great surface 
to the furnace gases, so that it may raise steam very 
quickly. The actual water capacity of the boiler is small, 
and therefore it must be fed continuously by a special 
pump. The pumps, two or three in number, usually have 
piston rods working direct from the steam cylinders 
on the plungers of the pumps. Between cylinders and 
pumps are slots in the rods in which rotate cranks con- 
nected with one another and with a fly-wheel which helps 
to keep the running steady. After leaving the pumps the 
water enters a large air vessel, which reduces the sudden 
shocks of delivery by the cushioning effect of the air, and 
causes a steady pressure on the water in the hoses. 

190 



CHAPTER XI 

FIRE-ALARMS AND AUTOMATIC 
FIRE EXTINGUISHERS 

ASSUMING that a town has a well-appointed fire 
brigade, equipped with the most up-to-date engines, 
it still cannot be considered efficiently protected 
against the ravages of the fire-fiend unless the outbreak of 
a fire can be notified immediately to the stations, and 
local mechanical means of suppression come into action 
almost simultaneously with the commencement of the con- 
flagration. " What you do, do quickly '"* is the keynote 
of successful fire-suppression ; and its importance has been 
practically recognised in the invention of hundreds of 
devices, some of which we will glance at in the following 
pages. 

The electric circuit is the most valuable servant that we 
have to warn us of danger. Dotted about the streets are 
posts carrying at the top a circular box, which contains a 
knob. As soon as a fire is observed, anyone may run to 
such a post, smash the glass screening the knob, and pull 
out the latter. This action flashes the alarm to the nearest 
fire-station, and a few minutes later an engine is dashing 
to the rescue. Help may also be summoned by means of 
the ordinary telephone exchanges or from poHce-stations 
in direct telephonic communication with the brigade depots. 

191 



MODERN MECHANISM 

All devices depending for their ultimate value on 
human initiative leave a good deal to be desired. They 
presuppose conditions which may be absent. For instance, 
an electric wire in a large factory ignites some combus- 
tible material during the night. A passer-by may happen 
to see flames while the fire is in an early stage. On the 
other hand, it is equally probable that the conflagration 
may be well established before the alarm is given, with 
the result that the fire brigade arrives too late to do much 
good. 

What we need, therefore, is a mechanical means of 
calling attention to the danger automatically, with a 
quickness which will give the brigade or people close at 
hand a chance of strangling the monster almost as soon 
as it is born, and with a precision as to locality that will 
save the precious time wasted in hunting for the exact 
point to be attacked. 

Mr. G. H. Oatway, m.i.e.e., in a valuable paper read 
before the International Congress of Fire Brigades in 
London in 1903, says that the difference between the 
damage resulting from a fire signalled in its early stage, 
and the same fire reported when it has spread to two or 
three floors, is often the difference between a nominal loss 
and a " burn out.'" The reformer, he continues, who aims 
at reducing fire waste must turn his attention primarily to 
hastening the alarm. The true cure of the matter is, 
not what quantity of gear it takes to deal with huge con- 
flagrations, but how to concentrate at the earliest stage 
upon the outbreaks as they occur, and to check them 
before they have grown beyond control. He cites the fire 
record of Glasgow of 1902, from which it appears that 

192 



ALARMS AND EXTINGUISHERS 

three fires alone accounted for 40 per cent, of the year's 
total I0SS5 ten fires for 73 per cent., and the other 706 for 
only 27 per cent., or an average of £72 per fire. Had 
the first three fires only been notified at an earlier stage, 
nearly £72,000 would have been saved. Captain Sir E. M. 
Shaw, late Chief of the London Fire Brigade, has put the 
following on record : " Having devoted a very large por- 
tion of the active period of my working life in bringing 
into general use mechanical and hydraulic appliances for 
dealing with fires after they have been discovered, I never- 
theless give and have always given the highest place to 
the early discovery and indication of fire, and not by any 
means to the steam, the hydraulic, or the numerous other 
mechanical appliances on which the principal labours of 
my life have been bestowed."*' 

A fire given fifteen minutes' start is often hard to over- 
take. Imagine a warehouse alight on three floors before 
the alarm is raised ! Engines may come one after another 
and pour deluges of water on the flames, yet as likely as 
not we read next morning of "total destruction." No 
stitch in time has saved nine ! 

The sad part about fires is that they represent so much 
absolute waste. In commercial transactions, if one party 
loses the other gains ; wealth is merely transferred, and 
still remains in the community. But in the matter of fire 
this is not the case. Supposing that a huge cotton mill 
is burnt down. The re-erection will, it is true, cause a lot 
of money to change hands ; but what has resulted from 
the money that has already been put into the mill ? 
Nothing. So many hundred thousands of pounds have 
been dematerialised and left nothing behind to represent 

N 193 



MODERN MECHANISM 

them. The great Ottawa fire of a few years ago may be 
remembered as a terrible example of such total loss of 
human effort. 

THE HISTORY OF FIRE-ALARMS 

The first recorded specification for an automatic detect- 
ing device bears the date 1763. In that year a Mr. John 
Greene patented an arrangement of cords, weights, and 
pulleys, which, when the cord burnt through, caused the 
movement of an indicating semaphore arm. As this 
action appealed only to the eye, it might easily pass un- 
noticed, and we can imagine that Mr. Greene did not find 
a gold mine in his invention. 

Twenty-four years later an advance was made w^hen 
William Stedman introduced a "philosophical fire alarum.*" 
" His apparatus consisted of a pivoted bulb having an open 
neck, and containing mercury, spirit or other liquid. As 
the heat of the room increased, the expansion of the fluid 
caused it to spill over, release a trigger, and allow a 
mechanical gong to run down. This arrangement, whilst 
an advance upon the first referred to, is quite impractic- 
able. Evaporation of fluid, expansion of mercury, a stiff* 
crank, or other causes which will readily occur to you, and 
the thing is useless."" * 

In 1806 an automatic method for sprinkling water over 
a fire appeared. The idea was simplicity itself: a net- 
work of water mains, with taps controlled by cords, which 
burnt through and turned on the water. William 
Congreve patented, three years later, a sprinkler which 
was an improvement, in that it indicated the position of 

* Mr. W. H. Oatway. 
194 



I, 



ALARMS AND EXTINGUISHERS 

the fire in a building by dropping one of a number of 
weights. But string is not to be relied upon. It may 
" perish **" and break when no fire is about, and any system 
of extinction depending on it might prove a double-edged 
weapon. 

The nineteenth century produced hundreds of devices 
for alarming and extinguishing automatically. All de- 
pended upon the principle of the expansion or melting 
of metal in the increased temperature arising from a fire. 
At one time the circuit-closing thermometer was popular 
on account of its simplicity. " Its drawback,"' says 
Mr. Oatway, " is the smallness of its heat-collecting sur- 
face, its isolation, and, last and worst of all, its fixity of 
operation. In thermometer or fuse-alarm practice it is 
usual to place the detectors at intervals of about ten feet 
or so, so that a room of any size will contain a number. 
If a fire breaks out, the ceiling is blanketed with heat, 
and every detector feels its influence. Each is affected, 
but none can give the alarm until some one of the 
number absolutely reaches the set point or melts out. 
Having no means of varying the composition of the solder 
or shifting the wire, an actuating point must be selected 
which is high enough to give a good working margin over 
the maximum industrial or seasonal heat of the year ; and 
thus it comes about that if the fire breaks out in winter, 
or when the room is at its lowest temperature, the amount 
of loss is considerably and quite unnecessarily increased. 
In a device set to fuse at 150° Fahrenheit, it will be clear 
to every one that the measure of the damage will depend 
upon the normal temperature of the room at tlie time of 
the outbreak. If the mercury is in the nineties, tliere is 

195 



MODERN MECHANISM 

only some sixty degrees of a rise to wait for ; whilst if it 
happens to be a winter's night, the alarm is held back for 
a rise of perhaps 120°. What chance is there in this case 
for a good stop ? " 

Mr. Oatway has examined the fuses under different 
conditions, and his conclusions are drawn from practical 
tests. Great intelligence will not be required to appre- 
ciate the force of his arguments. Inasmuch as the rise of 
temperature caused by a fire is relative, during the early 
stages at least, to the general heat of the atmosphere, it 
becomes obvious that an automatic fire-alarm should be 
one which will keep parallel, as it were, with fluctuations 
of natural heat. Thus, if the " danger rise ''*' be fixed at 
100% the alarm should be given on a cold night as 
certainly as at midday in summer. It was the failure 
of early patterns in this respect that led to their being 
discredited by the fire-brigade authorities. 

The writer already quoted has laid down the functions 
of a perfect alarm : — 

{a) To detect the fire at a uniformly early period, under 
all atmospheric and industrial conditions. 

(i) To give the alarm upon the premises, and simulta- 
neously to the brigade, by a definite and unmistakable 
message. 

(c) To facilitate the work of extinction by indicating 
the position of the outbreak in the building attacked. 

The "May Oatway'''' alarm has got round the first 
difficulty in a most ingenious manner by adapting the 
principle of the compensation methods already described 
in connection with watches. 

The alarm consists of a steel rod of a section found 

196 



ALARMS AND EXTINGUISHERS 

to be most suitable for the purpose. To the side is 
attached by screws entering the rod near the ends a 
copper wire, which is long enough to sag slightly at its 
centre, from which depends a silver chain carrying a 
carbon contact-piece. A short distance below the carbon 
are the two terminals of the electric circuit which, when 
completed by the lowering of the carbon, gives the alarm. 
Now if there be a very gradual change of temperature 
the steel rod lengthens slowly, and so does the copper 
wire, so that the amount of sag remains practically what 
it was before. But in event of a fire the copper expands 
much more quickly than the steel, and sags until the 
carbon completes the circuit. The whole thing is beauti- 
fully simple, very durable, quite consistent, and reliable. 
As soon as the temperature diminishes, on the extinction 
of the fire, the alarm automatically returns to its normal 
position, ready for further work. 

Now for the second function, that of giving the alarm 
in many places at once. The closed circuit does not 
itself directly cause bells to ring : it works a " relay ,''^ 
that is, a second and more powerful circuit. In fact, 
it is the counterpart of the engine driver, who does not 
himself make the locomotive move, but merely turns on 
the steam. An installation has been introduced in the 
Poplar Workhouse — to quote an instance. Were a fire 
to break out, one of the 276 detectors would soon set 
twenty-five bells in action, one in each officer''s room. 
Similarly, in the Warehousemen's Orphanage at Cheadle 
Hulme, every dormitory would be aroused, and every 
officer, including the Principal in his house some distance 
away. Messrs. Arthur and Company, of Glasgow, have 

197 



MODERN MECHANISM 

a warehouse fortified with 600 of these " nerve centres,""^ 
all yoked to four position indicators, three of which 
actuate a "master'' indicator connected with the central 
fire-station. There is no hole or corner in this huge 
establishment where the fire-demon could essay his fell 
work without being at once spied upon by a detector. 

We may glance for a moment at the mechanism which 
sends an unmistakable message for help. At the brigade 
station there is a number of small tablets, each protected 
by a flap, on the outside of which is the word SAFE, on 
the inside FIRE. Normally the flap is closed. As soon 
as the circuit is completed, a magnet releases the flap, 
and a bell begins to ring. Now, it is possible that the 
circuit might be closed accidentally by contact somewhere 
between the premises it serves and the fire-station. So 
that the official on guard, seeing " J. Brown and 
Company"" on the uncovered tablet, might despatch the 
engines to the place indicated on a wild-goose chase. 

To prevent such false alarms the transmitter not only 
rings the station up, but automatically sends an un- 
mistakable message. When a fire occurs an automatic 
printing machine is set in motion to despatch a cipher 
in the Morse code four times to the station. An acci- 
dental circuit could not do this ; therefore, when the 
officer sees on the receiving tape the well-known cipher, 
he turns out his men with all speed. 

On arriving at their destination the firemen receive 
valuable help from the " position indicator,*" which guides 
them to their work. On a special board is seen a row, 
or rows, of shutters similar to those already mentioned. 
Each row belongs to a floor; each unit of the row to a 

198 



ALARMS AND EXTINGUISHERS 

[ room. A glance suffices to tell that the trouble is, say, 
in the most southerly room of the second floor. No 
notice is therefore taken of smoke rolling out of other parts 
of the building, until the danger spot has been attacked. 

That the firemen appreciate such an ally goes without 
saying. Every fire extinguished is a point to their credit. 
Also, the risks they run are greatly diminished, while the 
wear and tear of tackle is proportionately reduced. The 
fireman is noted for his courage and unflinching perform- 
ance of duty. The discomforts of his profession are 
sometimes severe, and its dangers as certain as they are 
at times appalling. Therefore we welcome any mechanical 
method which at once shortens his work, lessens his peril, 
and protects property from damage. 

Mr. Oatway draws special attention to the need for 
simultaneous warning on the premises and at the fire- 
station. " I remember,'*'* he says, " many cases, but 
perhaps no better illustration need be looked for than 
the case of a cotton mill in Lancashire about two years 
ago (1901). The fire was seen to start at a few minutes 
past seven ; a fuse blew out, and sparked some cotton ; 
but it looked such a simple job that the operatives 
elected to deal with it. At twenty minutes to eight 
it dawned upon somebody that the brigade had better 
be sent for, because the fire was getting away ; and in 
due course they arrived ; but the mill, already doomed, 
became a total loss. In every centre similar instances 
can be quoted. There is nothing in any automatic 
system to discourage individual effort. Inmates can put 
the fire out, if able; but in any case the brigade gets 
timely and definite notice, and if on their arrival they 

199 



MODERN MECHANISM 

find the fire extinguished, as Chief Superintendent 
Thomas put it when we opened the Dingle Station 
after the fatal train-burning, ' So much the better, we 
shall get to our beds all the quicker. ** This is the 
common-sense view of it. Helpers work none the less 
intelligently because they know the brigade is coming; 
and it is necessary to provide some automatic method 
of calling them, because you can never rely upon any- 
body who is unfamiliar with fire doing the right thing 
at the proper time."** 

Messrs. May and Oatway, who give their name to the 
alarm described above, first introduced their apparatus 
in New Zealand, from which country it has spread over the 
British Empire. The largest installation is at Messrs. Clark 
and Company'^s Anchor Mills, Paisley. The whole of the 
immense block of buildings, the greater part of which was 
previously protected by " sprinklers *''' only, is now electri- 
cally protected also ; and connected up with the fire 
brigade, and through their station with the sleeping 
quarters of every fireman. Some figures will be inter- 
esting here. There are 119 miles of internal alarm cir- 
cuits ; 5 J miles of underground cable between buildings ; 

19 automatic telegraphs ; 21 automatic position indicators; 

20 alarm gongs a foot in diameter. 

Early in January, 1905, a fire broke out in these 
buildings during the dinner hour, when most of the works'" 
firemen were at their midday meal. The alarm sounded 
simultaneously at the works' fire-station and at the fire- 
men''s houses, which are situated on the other side of the 
street from the mill. The firemen were on the spot 
immediately, and were enabled to subdue the flames. 



ALARMS AND EXTINGUISHERS 

which had broken out in the building occupied as ware- 
house and office, before it had got a firm hold of the 
inflammable material, although not before one of the 
large stacks of finished thread was ablaze. The brigade, 
however, were soon masters of the situation, and the 
damage done was under £100. There is little doubt, had 
the alarm been left to the ordinary course, the building 
would have been totally destroyed.* 

In those few minutes the installation saved its entire 
cost many times over. Truly 

^^ A little fire is quickly trodden out, 
Which _, being suffered^ rivers cannot quench." 

Here, in a Shakespearean nutshell, is the whole science of 
fire protection. 

AUTOMATIC SPRINKLERS 

As these have been referred to several times a short 
description may appropriately be given. The building 
which they protect is fitted with a network of mains and 
branches ramifying into each room. At the end of each 
branch is a nozzle, the mouth of which is bridged over by 
a metal arch carrying a small plate. Between the bridge 
and a glass plug closing the nozzle is a bar of easily fusible 
solder. When the temperature has risen to danger point 
the solder melts, and the plug is driven out by the water, 
which strikes the plate and scatters in all directions. 

This device has proved very valuable on many occasions. 

The Encyclopocdia Britannica (Tenth Edition) states that, 

in the record of the American Associated Factory Mutual 

companies for the 5^ years ending January 1, 1900, it 

* Olasgow Evening News. 



MODERN MECHANISM 

appears that out of 563 fires where sprinklers came into 
play 129 were extinguished by one jet ; 83 by two jets ; 
61 by three ; 44 by four ; 40 by five. 

The fire-bucket is the simplest device we have as a first 
aid ; and very effective it often proves. Insurance statis- 
tics show that more fires are put out by pails than by all 
other appliances put together. The important point to 
be remembered in connection with them is that they 
should always be kept full; so that, at the critical moment, 
there may be no hiu'ried rushing about to find the two 
gallons of liquid which each is supposed to contain per- 
manently. In Cassier's Magazine (vol. xx. p. 85) is given 
an account of the manner in which an ingenious mill 
superintendent ensured the pails on the premises being 
ready for duty. The hooks carrying the pails w ere fitted 
up wdth pieces of spring steel strong enough to lift the 
pail when nearly empty, but not sufficiently so to lift 
a full pail. Just over each spring, in such a position 
as to be out of the way of the handle of the pail, was set 
a metal point, connected with a wire from an open-circuit 
battery. So long as the pails were full, their weight, 
when hung on their hooks, kept the springs down, but as 
soon as one was removed, or lost a considerable part of its 
contents by evaporation or otherwise, the spring on its 
hook would rise, come into contact with the metal point, 
thus close the battery circuit and ring a bell in the 
manager'*s office, at the same time showing which was the 
bucket at fault. The bell continued to ring till the 
deficiency had been made right ; and by this simple con- 
trivance the buckets were protected from misuse or lack 
of attention. 

202 



CHAPTER XII 
THE MACHINERY OF A SHH' 

THE REVERSING ENGINE MARINE ENGINE SPEED GOVERNORS — THE 

STEERING ENGINE BLOWING AND VENTILATING APPARATUS 

PUMPS FEED HEATERS FEED -WATER FILTERS DISTILLERS 

REFRIGERATORS THE SEARCH-LIGHT WIRELESS TELEGRA- 
PHY INSTRUMENTS SAFETY DEVICES THE TRANSMISSION OF 

POWER ON A SHIP 

WITH many travellers by sea the first impulse, after 
bunks have been visited and baggage has been 
safely stored away, is to saunter off to the 
hatches over the engine-room and peer down into the shin- 
ing machinery which forms the heart of the vessel. Some 
engine is sure to be at work to remind them of the great 
power stored down there below, and to give a foretaste of 
what to expect when the engine-room gong sounds and 
the man in charge opens the huge throttle controlling 
some thousands of horse-power. 

By craning forward over the edge of the ship, a jet of 
water may be seen spurting from a hole in the side just 
above the water-line, denoting either that a pump is 
emptying the bilge, or that the condensers are being 
cooled ready for the work before them. 

Towards the forecastle a busy little donkey engine is 
lifting bunches of luggage off the quay by means of a 
rope passing over a swinging spar attached to the mast, 

203 



MODERN MECHANISM 

and lowering it into the nether regions where stevedores 
pack it neatly away. 

In a small compartment on the upper deck is some 
mysterious, and not ver}^ important-looking, gear : yet, as 
it operates the rudder, it claims a place of honour equal- 
ling that of the main engines which tui^n the screw. 

To the ordinary passenger the very existence of much 
other machinery — the reversing engines, the air-pumps, 
the condensers, the " feed " heaters, the filters, the evapo- 
rators and refrigerators, and the ventilators — is most 
probably unsuspected. The electric light he would, from 
his experience of things ashore, vaguely connect with an 
engine " somewhere."'"' But the apparatus referred to 
either works so unobtrusively or is so sequestered from 
the public eye that one might travel for weeks without 
even hearing mention of it. 

On a warship the amount of machinery is vastly in- 
creased. In fact, every war vessel, from the first-class 
battleship to the smallest "destroyer,"*' is practically a 
congeries of machines ; accommodation for human beings 
taking a very secondary place. Big guns must be trained, 
fed, and cleaned by machinery ; and these processes, 
simple as they sound, need most elaborate devices. The 
difference in respect of mechanism between the King 
Edward VII. and Nelson's Victoiy is as great as that 
between a motor-car and a farmer'^s cart. It would not 
be too much to say that the mechanical knowledge of 
any period is very adequately gauged from its fighting 
vessels. 

Dui^ng the last twenty years marine engines have been 
enormously improved. But the advance of auxiliary 

204 



II 




Photo\ [Critd, Sourhsea, 

A gigantic sheer-legs used for lowering Ijoilers, big guns, turrets, etc., into men-of-war. 
The legs rise to a height of 140 feet, and will handle weights up to 150 tons. 



THE MACHINERY OF A SHIP 

appliances has been even more marked. In earlier times 
the matter considered of primary importance was the 
propulsion of the vessel ; and engineers turned their 
attention to the problem of crowding the greatest possi- 
ble amount of power into the least possible amount of 
space. This was effected mainly by the " compounding **' 
of engines — using the steam over and over again in 
cylinders of increasing size — and by improving the design 
of boilers. As soon as this business had been well for- 
warded, auxiliary machinery, which, though not absolutely 
necessary for movement, greatly affected the ease, comfort, 
and economy of working a ship, got its share of notice, 
with the result that a tour round the "works''"' of a modern 
battleship or liner is a growing wonder and a liberal 
education in itself. 

This chapter will deal with the auxiliaries to be found 
in large vessels designed for peaceful or warlike uses. 
Many devices are common to ships of both classes, and 
some are confined to one type only, though the "steel 
walP' certainly has the advantage with regard to multi- 
plicity. 

We may begin with 

THE REVERSING ENGINE /\ 

All marine engines should be fitted with some apparatus 
which enables the engineer to reverse them from full speed 
ahead to full speed astern in a few seconds. The effort 
required to perform the operation of shifting over the 
valves is such as to necessitate the help of steam. There- 
fore you will find a special device in the engine-room 
which, wlien the engineer moves a small lever either way 

205 



MODERN MECHANISM 

from the normal position, lets steam into a cylinder and 
moves rods reversing the main engine. By a link action 
(which could not be explained without a special diagram) 
the valves of the auxiliary are closed automatically as 
soon as the task has been performed ; so that there is no 
constant pressure on the one or the other side of its piston. 
To prevent the reversal being two sudden, the auxiliary's 
piston-rod is prolonged, and fitted to a second piston 
working in a second cylinder full of glycerine or oil. This 
piston is pierced with a small hole, through which the in- 
compressible liquid passes as the piston moves. Since its 
passage is gradual, the engines are reversed deliberately 
enough to protect their valves from any severe strains. 
These reversing engines can, if the steam serving them 
fails, be worked by hand. 

MARINE ENGINE SPEED GOVERNORS 

When a ship is passing through a strong sea and 
pitches as she crosses the waves, the screw is from time to 
time lifted clear of the water, and the engines which 
a moment before had been doing their utmost, suddenly 
find their load taken off them. The result is "racing'' 
of the machinery, which makes itself very unpleasantly 
felt from one end of the ship to the other. Then the 
screw, revolving at a speed much above the normal, 
suddenly plunges into the water again, and encounters 
great resistance to its revolution. 

A series of changes from full to no " load," as engineers 
term it, must be harmful to any engines, even though the 
evil effects are not shown at once. Great strains are set 
up which shake bolts loose, or may crack the heavy 

206 



THE MACHINERY OF A SHIP 

standards in which the cranks and shaft work, and even 
seriously tax the shaft itself and the screw. On land 
every stationary engine set to do tasks in which the load 
varies — which practically means all stationary engines — 
are fitted with a governor, to cut off the steam directly a 
certain rate of revolution is exceeded. These engines are 
the more easily governed because they carry heavy fly- 
wheels, which pick up or lose their velocity gradually. A 
marine engine, on the other hand, has only the screw to 
steady it, and this is extremely light in proportion to the 
power which drives it ; in fact, has scarcely any controlling 
influence at all as soon as it leaves the water. 

Marine engineers, therefore, need some mechanical means 
of restraining their engines from " running away."" The 
device must be very sensitive and quick acting, since the 
engines would increase their rate threefold in a second 
if left ungovemed when running "free''"'; while on the 
other hand it must not throttle the steam supply a moment 
after the work has begun again when the screw takes the 
water. 

Many mechanisms have been invented to curb the 
marine engine. Some have proved fairly successful, others 
practically useless ; and the fact remains that, owing to 
the greater difficulty of the task, marine governing is not 
so delicate as that of land engines. A great number of 
steamships are not fitted with governors, for the simple 
reason that the engineers are sceptical about such devices 
as a class and " would rather not be bothered with tliem.'^ 

But whatever may have been its record in the past, the 
marine governor is at the present time sufficiently de- 
veloped to form an item in the engine-rooms of many of 

207 



MODERN MECHANISM 

our largest ships. We select as one of the best devices 
yet produced that known as Andrews' Patent Governor ; 
and append a short description. 

It consists of two main parts — the pumps and the ram 
closing the throttle. The pumps, two in number, are 
worked alternately by some moving part of the engine, 
such as the air-pump lever. They inject water through 
a small pipe into a cylinder, the piston-rod of which 
operates a throttle valve in the main steam supply to the 
engines. At the bottom of this cylinder is a by-pass, 
or artificial leak, through which the water flows back to 
the pumps. The size of the flow through the by-pass is 
controlled by a screw adjustment. 

We will suppose that the governor is set to permit one 
hundred revolutions a minute. As long as that rate is not 
exceeded the by-pass will let out as much water as the pumps 
can inject into the cylinder, and the piston is not moved. 
But as soon as the engines begin to race, the pumps send in 
an excess, and the piston immediately begins to rise, closing 
the throttle. As the speed falls, the leak gets the upper 
hand again, and the piston is pushed down by a powerful 
spring, opening the throttle. 

It might be supposed that, when the screw " races,'"* the 
pumps would not only close the throttle, but also press so 
hard on it as to cause damage to some part of the appara- 
tus before the speed had fallen again. This is prevented 
by the presence of a second control valve (or leak) worked 
by a connecting-rod rising along with the piston-rod of 
the ram. The two rods are held in engagement by a 
powerful spring which presses them together, so that 
a hollow in the first engages with a projection on the 

208 



THE MACHINERY OF A SHIP 

second. Immediately the pressure increases and the 
piston rises, the second valve is shut by the lifting of its 
rod, and so farther augments the pressure in the cylinder 
and quickens the closing of the throttle valve. This 
pressure increase must, however, be checked, or the piston 
would overrun and stop the engines. So when the piston 
has nearly finished its stroke the connecting-rod comes 
into contact with a stop which disengages it from the 
piston-rod and allows the second control valve to be fully 
opened by the spring pulling on its rod. The piston at 
once sinks to such a position as the pressure allows, and 
the action is repeated time after time. 

The governing is practically instantaneous, though 
without shock, and is said to keep the engine within 
3 per cent, of the normal rate. That is, if 100 be the 
proper number of revolutions, it would not be allowed to 
exceed 103 or drop below 97. Such governing is, in 
technical language, very "close."" 

The idea is very ingenious : pumps working against a 
leak, and as soon as they have mastered it, being aided 
by a secondary valve which reduces the size of the leak so 
as to render the effect of the pumps increasingly rapid 
until the throttle has been closed. Then the secondary 
valve is suddenly thrown out of action, gives the leak full 
play, and causes the throttle to open quickly so that the 
steam may be cut off only for a moment. By the turn- 
ing of a small milled screw-head a couple of inches in 
diameter the pace of 5,000 h.p. engines is as fully regu- 
lated as if a powerful brake were applied the moment 
they exceeded " the legal limit.'" 



209 



MODERN MECHANISM 

STEERING ENGINES 

The uninitiated may think that the man on the bridge, 
revolving a spoked-wheel with apparently small exertion, 
is directly moving the rudder to port or to starboard as he 
wishes. But the helm of a large vessel, travelling at high 
speed, could not be so easily deflected were not some giant 
at work down below in obedience to the easy motions of 
the wheel. 

Sometimes in a special little cabin on deck, but more 
often in the engine-room, where it can be tended by the 
staff, there is the steering engine, usually worked by steam- 
power. Two little cylinders turn a worm-screw which 
revolves a worm-wheel and a train of cogs, the last of 
Avhich moves to right or left a quadrant attached to the 
chains or cables which work the rudder. All that the 
steersman has to do with his wheel is to put the engine 
in forward, backward, or middle gear. The steam being 
admitted to the cylinders quickly moves the helm to the 
position required. 

A particularly ingenious steam gear is that made by 
Messrs. Harfield and Company, of London. Its chief 
feature is the arrangement whereby the power to move 
the rudder into any position remains constant. If you 
have ever steered a boat, you will remember that, when 
a sudden curve must be made, you have to put far more 
strength into the tiller than would suffice for a slight 
change of direction. Now, if a steam-engine and gear 
were so built as to give sufficient pressure on the helm in 
all positions, it would, if powerful enough to put the ship 
hard-a-port, evidently be overpowered for the gentler 

210 



THE MACHINERY OF A SHIP 

movements, and would waste steam. The Harfield gear 
has the last of the cog-train — the one which engages with 
the rack operating the tiller — mounted eccentrically. The 
rack itself is not part of a circle, but almost flat centrally, 
and sharply bent at the ends. In short, the curve is 
such that the rack teeth engage with the eccentric cog at 
all points of the latter'^s revolution. 

When the helm is normal the longest radius of the 
eccentric is turned towards the rack. In this position it 
exerts least power; but least power is then needed. As 
the helm goes over, the radius of the cogs gradually 
decreases, and its leverage proportionately increases. So 
that the engine is taxed uniformly all the time. 

Some war vessels, including the ill-fated Russian cruiser 
Variag^ have been fitted with electric steering gear, 
operated by a motor in which the direction of the current 
can be varied at the will of the helmsman. 

All power gears are so arranged that, in case of a 
breakdown of the power, a hand-wheel can be quickly 
brought into play. 

^ BLOWING AND VENTILATING APPARATUS 

A railway locomotive sends the exhaust steam up the 
funnel with sufficient force to expel all air from the same 
and to create a vacuum. The only passage for the air 
flying to fill this empty space lies through the fire-box 
and tubes traversing the boiler from end to end. Were 
it not for the "induced draught*" — the invention of 
George Stephenson — no locomotive would be able to 
draw a train at a higher speed than a few miles an 
hour. ^ 



MODERN MECHANISM 

On shipboard the fresh water used in the boilers is far 
too precious to be wasted by using it as a fire-exciter. 
Salt water to make good the loss would soon corrode the 
boilers and cause terrible explosions. Therefore the neces- 
sary draught is created by forcing air through the fur- 
naces instead of by drazving it. 

The stoke-hold is entirely separated from the outer air, 
except for the ventilators, down which air is forced by 
centrifugal pumps at considerable pressure. This draught 
serves two purposes. It lowers the temperature of the 
stoke-hold, which otherwise would be unbearable, and also 
feeds the fires with plenty of oxygen. The air forced in 
can escape in one way only, viz. by passing through the 
furnaces. When the ship is slowed down the "forced 
draught **' is turned off, and then you see the poor stokers 
coming up for a breath of fresh air. In the Red Sea or 
other tropical latitudes these grimy but useful men have 
a very hard time of it. While passengers up above are 
grumbling at the heat, the stoker below is almost 
fainting, although clad in nothing but the thinnest of 
trousers. 

In the engine-room also things at times become uncom- 
fortably warm. Take the case of the United States 
monitor Amphitrite^ which went into commission in 1895 
for a trial run. 

Both stoke-hold and engine-room were very insufficiently 
ventilated. The vessel started from Hampton Roads for 
Brunswick, Georgia. "The trip of about 500 miles 
occupied five days in the latter part of July, and, for 
sheer suffering, has perhaps seldom been equalled in our 
naval history. The fire-room (stoke-hold) temperature 



THE MACHINERY OF A SHIP 

was never below 150^, and often above 170°, while the 
engine-room ranged closely about 150°. For the first 
twenty-four hours the men stood it well, but on the 
second day seven succumbed to the heat and were put on 
the sick list, one of them nearly dying ; before the voyage 
was ended, twenty-eight had been driven to seek medical 
attendance. The gaps thus created were partially filled 
with inexperienced men from the deck force, until there 
was only a lifeboat's crew left in each watch. . . . On the 
evening of the fourth day out our men had literally 
fought the fire to a finish and had been vanquished ; the 
watch on duty broke down one by one, and the engines, 
after lumbering along slower and slower, actually stopped 
for want of steam. ... At daybreak the next morning 
we got under way and steamed at a very conservative rate 
to our destination, fortunately only about ten miles distant. 
The scene in the fire-room that morning was not of this 
earth, and far beyond description. The heat was almost 
destructive to life ; steam was blowing from many de- 
fective joints and water columns; tools, ladders, doors, 
and all fittings were too hot to touch; and the place was 
dense with smoke escaping from furnace doors, for there 
was absolutely no draught. The men collected to build 
up the fires were the best of those remaining fit for duty, 
but they were worn out physically, were nervous, appre- 
hensive, and dispirited. Rough Irish firemen, who would 
stand in a fair fight till killed in their tracks, were crying 
like children, and begging to be allowed to go on deck, so 
completely were they unmanned by the cruel ordeal they 
had endured so long. ' Hell afloat ' is a nautical figure of 
speech often idly used, but then we saw it. For a month 

213 



MODERN MECHANISM 

thereafter the ship was actively employed on the southern 
coast, drilling militia at different ports, and sweltering in 
the new dock at Port Royal. One trip of twenty-nine 
hours broke the record for heat, the fire-room being fre- 
quently above 180°. All fire-room temperatures were 
taken in the actual spaces where the men had to work, and 
not from hot corners or overhead pockets."''* 

The ventilators were subsequently altered, and the men 
enjoyed comparative comfort. The words quoted will 
suffice to establish the importance of a proper current of 
air where men have to work. One of the greatest diffi- 
culties encountered in deep mining is that, while the tem- 
perature approaches and sometimes passes that of a stoke- 
hold, the task of sending down a cool current from above 
is, with depths of 4,000 ft. and over, a very awkward one 
to carry out. 

On passenger ships the fans ventilating the cabins and 
saloons are constantly at work, either sucking out foul air 
or driving in fresh. The principle of the fan is very 
similar to that of the centrifugal water pump — vanes 
rotating in a case open at the centre, through which the 
air enters, to be flung by the blades against the sides of 
the case and driven out of an opening in its circumference. 
Sometimes an ordinary screw-shaped fan, such as we often 
see in public buildings, is employed. 

PUMPS 

Every steamship carries several varieties of pump. 
First, there are the large pumps, generally of a simple 

* F. M. Bennett, in the Journal of the American Society of Naval 
Engineers. 

214 



I 



THE MACHINERY OF A SHIP 

type, for emptying the bilge or any compartment of the 
ship which may have sprung a leak. " All hands to the 
pumps ! '" is now seldom heard on a steamer, for the open- 
ing of a steam-cock sets machinery in motion which will 
successfully jRght any but a very severe breach. It is 
needless to say that these pumps form a very important 
part of a ship''s equipment, without which many a fine 
vessel would have sunk which has struggled to land. 

The pumps for the condensers form another class. 
These are centrifugal force pumps ; their duty is to circu- 
late cold sea-water round the nests of tubes through 
which steam flows after passing through the cylinders. 
It is thus converted once more into water, ready for use 
again in the boiler. Every atom of the water is evapo- 
rated, condensed, and pumped back into the boiler once 
in a period ranging from fifteen minutes to an hour, 
according to the type of boiler and the size of the supply 
tanks. 

Some condensers have the cooling water passed through 
the tubes, and the steam circulated round these in an air- 
tight chamber. In any case, the condenser should be so 
designed as to offer a large amount of cold surface to the 
hot vapour. A breakdown of the condenser pumps is 
a serious mishap, since steam would then be wasted, 
which represents so much fresh water — hard to replace in 
the open sea. It would be comparable to the disarrange- 
ment of the circulating pump on a motor-car, though the 
effects are different. 

We must not forget the feed-pumps for the boilers. 
On their efficient action depends the safety of the ship 
and her passengers. Water must be maintained at a 

215 



MODERN MECHANISM 

certain level in the boiler, so that all tube and other 
surfaces in direct contact with the furnace gases may be 
covered. The disastrous explosions we sometimes hear of 
are often caused by the failure of a pump, the burning of 
a tube or plate, and the inevitable collapse of the same. 
The firms of Weir and Worthington are among the best- 
known makers of the special high-pressure pumps used for 
throwing large quantities of water into the boilers of 
mercantile and war vessels. 

FEED HEATERS 

As the fuel supply of a vessel cannot easily be re- 
plenished on the high seas, economy in coal consumption 
is very desirable. 

If you put a cold spoon into a boiling saucepan ebulli- 
tion is checked at once, though only for a moment, while 
the spoon takes in the temperature of the water. Similarly, 
if cold water be fed into a boiler the steam pressure at 
once falls. Therefore the hotter the feed water is the 
better. 

The feed heater is the reverse of the condenser. In 
the latter, cold water is used to cool hot steam ; in the 
former, hot steam to heat cold water. There are many 
patterns of heaters. One type, largely used, sprays the 
cold water through a valve into a chamber through which 
steam is passed from the engines. The spray, falling 
through the hot vapour, partially condenses it and takes 
up some of its heat. The surplus steam travels on to 
the condensers. A float in the lower part of the chamber 
governs a valve admitting steam to the boiler pumps, so 
that as soon as a certain amount of water has accumu- 

216 



THE MACHINERY OF A SHIP 

lated the pumps are started, and the hot liquid is forced 
into the boiler. 

Another type, the Hampson feeder, sends steam 
through pipes of a wavy form surrounded by the feed 
water, there being no actual contact between liquid and 
vapour. 

An ally of the heater is the 

FEED-WATER FILTER, 

which removes suspended matter which, if it entered the 
boiler, would form a deposit round the tubes, and while 
decreasing their efficiency, make them more liable to 
burning. The most dangerous element caught by the 
filters is fatty matter — oil which has entered the cylinders 
and been carried off by the exhaust steam. 

The filter is either high pressure, Le, situated between 
the pump and the boiler; or low pressure, i.e. between 
the pump and the reservoir from which it draws its 
water. The second class must have large areas, so as not 
to throttle the supply unduly. 

Many kinds of filtering media have been tried — fabrics 
of silk, calico, cocoanut fibre, towelling, sawdust, cork 
dust, charcoal, coke ; but the ideal substance, at once 
cheap, easily obtainable, durable, and completely effective, 
yet remains to be found. 

A filter should be so constructed that the filtering sub- 
stance is very accessible for cleansing or renewal. 

DISTILLERS 

We now come to a part of a ship\s plant very necessary 
for both machines and human beings. Many a time have 

217 



MODERN MECHANISM 

people been in the position of the Ancient Mariner, who 

exclaimed : — 

^^ Water^ water^ everywhere, 
But not a drop to drink ! " 

Water is so weighty that a ship cannot carry more 
than a very limited quantity, and that for the immediate 
needs of her passengers. The boilers, in spite of their 
condensers, waste a good deal of steam at safety valves 
through leaking joints and packings, and in other ways. 
This loss must be made good, for, as already remarked, 
salt water spells the speedy ruin of any boiler it enters. 

The distiller in its simplest form combines a boiler for 
changing water into vapour, with a condenser for recon- 
verting it to liquid. Solids in impure water do not pass 
off with the steam, so that the latter, if condensed in clean 
vessels, is fit for drinking or for use in the engine boilers. 

A pound of steam will, under this system, give a pound 
of water. But as such procedure would be extravagant 
of fuel, compound condensers are used, which act in the 
following manner. 

High-pressure steam is passed from the engine boilers 
into the tubes of an evaporator, and converts the salt 
water surrounding it into steam. The boiler steam then 
travels into its own condenser or into the feed water 
heater, while the steam it generated passes into the coils 
of a second evaporator, converts water there into steam, 
and itself goes to a condenser. The steam generated in 
the second evaporator does similar duty in a third 
evaporator. So that one pound of high-pressure steam 
is directly reconverted to water, and also indirectly pro- 
duces between two and three pounds of fresh water. 

218 



THE MACHINERY OF A SHIP 

The condensers used are similar to those already de- 
scribed in connection with the engines, and need no 
further comment. About the evaporators, it may be 
said* that they are so constructed that they can be 
cleaned out easily as soon as the accumulation of salt 
and other matter renders the operation necessary. Usually 
one side is hinged, and provided with a number of bolts 
all round the edges which are quickly removed and re- 
placed. 

The United States Navy includes a ship, the /ra, whose 
sole duty is to supply the fleet she attends with plenty of 
fresh water. She was built in 1885 by Messrs. R. and W. 
Hawthorn, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, and measures 310 feet 
in length, 38J feet beam. For her size she has remark- 
able bunker capacity, and can accommodate nearly 2,500 
tons of coal. Fore and aft are huge storage tanks to 
hold between them about 170,000 gallons of fresh water. 
Her stills can produce a maximum of 60,000 gallons a 
day. It has been reckoned that each ton of water distilled 
costs only 18 cents ; or, stated otherwise, that 40 gallons 
cost one penny. At many ports fresh water costs three 
or four times this figure ; and even when procured is of 
doubtful purity. During the Spanish- American War the 
Iris and a sister ship, the Rainbow^ proved most useful. 

REFRIGERATORS 

Of late years the frozen -meat trade has increased by 
leaps and bounds. Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, 
Canada, and the United States send millions of pounds' 
worth of mutton and beef across the water every year to 
help feed the populations of England and Europe. 

219 



MODERN MECHANISM 

In past times the live animals were sent, to be either 
killed when disembarked or fatted up for the market. 
This practice was expensive, and attended by much suffer- 
ing of the unfortunate creatures if bad weather knocked 
the vessel about. 

Refrigerating machinery has altered the traffic most 
fundamentally. Not only can more meat be sent at 
lower rates, but the variety is increased ; and many other 
substances than flesh are often found in the cold stores of 
a ship — butter and frait being important items. 

Certain steamship lines, such as the Shaw, Savill, and 
Albion — plying between England and Australasia — include 
vessels specially built for the transport of vast numbers of |l 
carcases. Upwards of a million carcases have been packed 
into the hull of a single ship and kept perfectly fresh 
during the long six weeks' voyage across the Equator. 

Every passenger - carrying steamer is provided with 
refrigerating rooms for the storage of perishable provi- 
sions ; and as the comfort of the passengers, not to say 
their luxury, is bound up with these compartments, it 
will be interesting to glance at the method employed for 
creating local frost amid surrounding heat. 

The big principle underlying the refi'igerator is this — 
that a liquid when turned into gas absorbs heat (thus, to 
convert water into steam you must feed it with heat from 
a fire), and that as soon as the gas loses a certain amount 
of its heat it reverts to liquid form. 

Now take ammonia gas. The " spirits of hartshorn '' 
we buy at the chemist's is water impregnated with this gas. 
At ordinary living temperatures the water gives out the gas, 
as a sniff at the bottle proves in a most effective manner. 

220 



THE MACHINERY OF A SHIP 

If this gas were cooled to 37*3° below zero it would 
assume a liquid state, i,e. that temperature marks its 
boiling point. Similarly steam, cooled to 212° Fahr., 
becomes water. Boiling point, therefore, merely means 
the temperature at which the change occurs. 

Ammonia liquid, when gasifying, absorbs a great 
amount of heat from its surroundings — air, water, or 
whatever they may be. So that if we put a tumbler full 
of the liquid into a basin of water it would rob the water 
of enough heat to cause the formation of ice. 

The refrigerating machine, generally employed on ships, 
is one which constantly turns the ammonia liquid into 
gas, and the gas back into liquid. The first process pro- 
duces the cold used in the freezing-rooms. The apparatus 
consists of three main parts : — 

(1) The compressor^ for squeezing ammonia gas. 

(2) The condenser^ for liquefying the gas. 

(3) The evaporator^ for gasifying the liquid. 

The compressor is a pump. The condense?^ a tube or 
series of tubes outside which cold water is circulated. 
The evaporator^ a spiral tube or tubes passing through a 
vessel full of brine. Between the condenser and evaporator 
is a valve, which allows the liquid to pass from the one to 
the other in proper quantities. 

We can now watch the cycle of operations. The com- 
pressor sucks in a charge of very cold gas from the 
evaporator, and squeezes it into a fraction of its original 
volume, thereby heating it. The heated gas now passes 
into the condenser coils and, as it expands, encounters 
the chilling effects of the water circulating outside, which 
robs it of heat and causes it to liquefy. 

221 



MODERN MECHANISM 

It is next slowly admitted through the expansion valve 
into the evaporator. Here it gradually picks up the heat 
necessary for its gaseous form : taking it from the brine 
outside the coils, which has a very low freezing-point. 
The brine is circulated by pumps through pipes lining the 
walls of the freezing-room, and robs the air there of its 
heat until a temperature somewhat below the freezing- 
point of water is reached. 

The room is well protected by layers of charcoal or 
silicate cotton, which are very bad conductors of heat. 
How the chamber strikes a novice can be gathered from 
the following description of a Cunard liner's refrigerating 
room. " It is a curious and interesting sight. It may be 
a hot day on deck, nearing New York, and everyone is 
going about in sun hats and light clothes. We descend a 
couple of flights of stairs, tui^n a key, and here is winter, 
sparkling in glassy frost upon the pale carcases of fowls 
and game, and ruddy joints of meat, crystallising the 
yellow apples and black grapes to the likeness of sweet- 
meats in a grocer's shop, gathering on the wall-pipes in 
scintillating coats of snow nearly an inch deep. You can 
make a snowball down here, if you like, and carry it up 
on deck to astonish the languid loungers sheltering from 
the sun under the protection of the promenade-deck roof. 
Such is the modern substitute for the old-time salt-beef 
cask and bags of dried pease ! "" 

The larder is so near the kitchen that while below 
decks we may just peep into the kitchens, where a white- 
capped chef presides over an army of assistants. Inside 
a huge oven are dozens of joints tuiTiing round and round 
by the agency of an invisible electric-motor. But what 

222 



I 



THE MACHINERY OF A SHIP 



most tickles the imagination is an electrical egg-boiling 
apparatus, which ensures the correct amount of cooking 
to any egg. A row of metal dippers, with perforated 
bottoms, is suspended over a trough of boiling water. 
Each dipper is marked for a certain time — one minute, 
two, three, four, and so on. The dippers, filled with eggs, 
are pushed down into the water. No need to worry lest 
they should be "done to a bullet,'^ for at the expiry of 
a minute up springs the one-minute dipper; and after 
each succeeding minute the others follow in due rotation. 
Where 2,000 eggs or more are devoured daily this 
ingenious automatic device plays no mean part. 

THE SEARCH-LIGHT 

All liners and war vessels now carry apparatus which 
will enable them to detect danger at night time, whether 
rocks or an enemy's fleet, icebergs or a water-logged 
derelict. On the bridge, or on some other commanding 
part of the vessel's structure, is a circular, glass-fronted 
case, backed with a mirror of peculiar shape. Inside are 
two carbon points almost touching, across which, at the 
turn of a handle, leaps a shower of sparks so continuous 
as to form a dazzling light. The rays from the electric 
arc, as it is called, either pass directly through the glass 
lens, or are caught by the parabolic reflector and shot 
back through it in an almost parallel pencil of wonderful 
intensity, which illumines the darkness like a ray of 
sunshine slanting through a crack in the shutter of a 
room. The search-light draws its current from special 
dynamos, which absorb many horse-power in the case of 
the powerful apparatus used on warships. At a distance 

223 



MODERN MECHANISM 

of several miles a page of print may be easily read by the 
beams of these scrutinisers of the night. 

The finest search-lights are to be found ashore at naval 
ports, where, in case of war, a sharp look-out must be 
kept for hostile vessels. Portsmouth boasts a light of 
over a million candle-power, but even this is quite 
eclipsed by a monster light built by the Schuckert Com- 
pany, of Nuremberg, Germany, which gives the effect of 
316,000,000 candles. An instrument of such power would 
be useless on board ship, owing to the great amount of 
current it devours, but in a port, connected with the light- 
ing plant of a large town, it would serve to illumine the 
country round for many miles. 

In addition to its value as an "eye,^"' the search-light 
can be utilised as an "ear.*" Ernst Ruhmer, a German 
scientist, has discovered a method of telephoning along 
a beam of light from a naval projector. The amount of 
current passing into the arc is regulated by the pulsations 
of a telephone battery and transmitter. If the beam be 
caught by a parabolic reflector, in the focus of which is a 
selenium cell connected with a battery and a pair of sensi- 
tive telephone receivers, the effect of these pulsations of 
light is heard. Selenium being a metal which varies its 
resistance to an electric circuit in proportion to the in- 
tensity of light shining upon it, any fluctuations of the 
search-lighfs beams cause electric fluctuations of equal 
rapidity in the telephone circuit ; and since these waves 
arise from the vibrations of speech, the electric vibrations 
they cause in the selenium circuit are retransformed at 
the receiver into the sounds of speech. This German 
apparatus makes it possible to send messages nine or ten 
miles over a powerful projector beam. 

224 



THE MACHINERY OF A SHIP 

In the United States Navy, and in other navies as well, 
night signals are flashed by the electric light. The 
pattern of lamp used in the United States Navy is divided 
transversely into two compartments, the upper having a 
white, the lower a red, lens. Four of these lamps are 
hung one above the other from a mast. A switch-board 
connected with the eight incandescent lamps in the series 
enables the operator to send any required signal, one letter 
or figure being flashed at a time. During the Spanish- 
American War the United States fleet made great use of 
this simple system, which on a clear night is very effective 
up to distances of four miles. 

Large arc-lamps slung on yards over the deck give great 
help for coaling and unloading vessels at night time. The 
touch of a switch lights up the deck with the brilliancy of 
a well-equipped railway station. The day of the "lantern, 
dimly burning,''^ has long passed away from the big liner, 
cargo boat, and warship. 

WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY INSTRUMENTS 

Solitude is being rapidly banished from the earth's 
surface. By solitude we mean entire separation from 
news of the world, and the inability to get into touch 
with people far away. On the remote ranches of the 
United States, in sequestered Norwegian fiords, in the 
folds of the eternal hills where the only other living 
creature is the eagle, man may still be as conversant with 
what is going on in China or Peru as if he were living in 
the busy streets of a capital town. The electric wire is 
the magic news-bringer. Wherever man can go it can go 
too, and also into many places besides, 
p 325 



MODERN MECHANISM 

We must make one exception — the surface of the sea. 
Cables rest on ocean's bed, but they would be useless if 
floated on its surface to act as marine telegraph offices. 
Winds and waves would soon batter them to pieces, even 
if they could be moored, which in a thousand fathoms may 
be considered impracticable. 

So until a few years back the occupants of a ship were 
truly isolated from the time that they left port until 
they reached land again, except for the rare occasions 
when a passing vessel might give them a fragment of 
news. 

This has all been changed. Stroll into the saloon of 
one of our large Atlantic liners and you will see telegram 
forms lying on the tables. In the 'nineties they would have 
been about as useful aboard ships as a mackintosh coat in 
the Sahara. A glance, however, at pamphlets scattered 
around informs you that the ship carries a Marconi wire- 
less installation, and that a Marconi telegram, handed 
in at the ship's telegraph office, will be despatched on 
the wings of ether waves to the land far over the 
horizon. 

Inside the cabin streams of sparks scintillate with a 
cracking noise, and your message shoots into space from a 
wire suspended on insulators from one of the mast heads. 
If circumstances favour, you may receive a reply from the 
Unseen before the steamer has got out of range of the 
coast stations. The immense installations at Poldhu, 
Cornwall, and in Newfoundland, could be used to flash the 
words to a ship at any point of the transatlantic journey. 
Owing to lack of space, and consequently power, the 
steamer's transmitting apparatus has a limited capacity. 

226 



THE MACHINERY OF A SHIP 

The first shipping company to grasp the possibilities of 
the commercial working of the Marconi system was the 
Nord-Deutscher-Lloyd, whose mail steamer. Kaiser Wil- 
helm der Grosse^ was fitted in March, 1900. At the 
present time many of the large Atlantic steamship com- 
panies carry a wireless installation as a matter of course, 
ranking it among necessary things. The Cunard, American 
Atlantic Transport, Allan, Compagnie Transatlantique, 
Hamburg -American, and Nord-Deutscher-Lloyd lines 
make full use of the system, as the conveniences it gives 
far outweigh any expense. A short time since maritime 
signalling was extremely limited in its range, being effected 
by flags, semaphores, lights, and sounds, which in stormy 
weather became uncertain agents, and in foggy, useless. 
Also the operations of transmitting and receiving were so 
slow that many a message had to remain uncompleted. 

The following paragraph, which appeared in The Times 
of December 11th, 1903, is significant of the very prac- 
tical value of marine wireless telegraphy. '^ The American 
steamer Kroonland^ from Antwerp for New York, which, 
as reported yesterday, disabled her steering gear when 
west of the Fastnet, and had to put back, arrived yester- 
day morning at Queenstown. The saloon passengers speak 
in the highest terms of praise of the utility of the 
Marconi wireless telegraphy with which the liner is fitted, 
and of the facility with which, when the accident occurred, 
the passengers were able to communicate with their friends, 
in England, Scotland, and the Continent, and even 
America, and get replies before the Irish coast was sighted. 
The accident occurred on Tuesday about noon, when the 
liner was 130 miles west of the Fastnet, and communication 

227 



MODERN MECHANISM 

was at once made with the Marconi station at Crookhaven. 
Captain Doxrud was enabled accordingly to send messages 
to the chief agents of the American line, at Antwerp, 
stating the nature of the damage to the steering gear of 
the steamer, and that he would have to abandon the idea 
of prosecuting the western voyage. Within an hour and 
a half a message was received by the captain from the 
agents instructing him what to do, and at once the Kroon- 
land was headed for Queenstown. Three-fourths of the 
total number of the saloon passengers and a goodly num- 
ber of the second cabin sent messages to their friends in 
various parts of the world, and replies were received even 
from the Continent before the Fastnet was sighted. 
Seven or eight passengers telegraphed to relatives for 
money, and replies were received in four instances, author- 
ising the purser to advance the amounts required, and the 
money was paid over in each case to the passengers." 

The possibility of thus communicating between vessel 
and land, or vessel and vessel, removes much of the 
anxiety attending a sea voyage. Business men, for whom 
even a few days' want of touch with the mercantile markets 
may be a serious matter, can send long messages in code 
or otherwise instructing their agents what to do ; while 
they can receive information to shape their actions when 
they reach land. The "uncommercial traveller" also is 
pleased and grateful on receiving a message from home. 
The feeling of loneliness is eliminated. The ocean has lost 
its right to the term bestowed by Horace — dissociabilis^ 
" the separator." 

Steamship companies vie with one another in their 
efforts to keep their passengers well posted in the latest 

228 



'^mw 




hoto^ 



\C) ihb, Scufhs<a. 



FIXING A UATTLE-RAM 



he ram of a battleship l)eing placed in position with the aid of a huge crane. 1 he si/e of the ram 
will be appreciated from the dwarfmi; effect it has on that of the man percheil near the lifting 
tackle. 



THE MACHINERY OF A SHIP 

news. Bulletins, or small newspapers, are issued daily 
during the voyage, which give, in very condensed form, 
accounts of events interesting to those on board. " The 
amount of fresh news a steamer gathers during a passage 
is considerable, and is greatly relished by the passengers, 
who are invariably ravenous for signs of the busy life they 
left behind, more especially when they have departed on 
the verge of some important event taking place ; and the 
bulletins are eagerly sought for when it is announced that 
an inward-bound ship is in communication. The ship- 
owners realise the importance and usefulness of being able 
to communicate with their commanders before the huge 
vessels enter narrow waters, and issue instructions concern- 
ing their movements. 

"The stations, which are placed at carefully-selected 
points at well-adapted distances around the coast, are 
connected with either the land telegraph or telephone 
line, or are close to a telegraph office. They are kept 
open night and day, as the times of the ships passing are, 
of course, greatly dependent on the weather encountered 
during the voyage. For those on shore who are anxious 
to greet their friends on arrival — with good or bad news, 
as the case may be — this arrangement enables them to be 
informed of the exact time of the ship's expected arrival, 
and they are left free to their own devices, instead of 
enduring long waits on draughty piers and docks — which, 
on a wet or windy day, are almost enough to damp the 
warmest and most enthusiastic welcome. 

" Cases have occurred where a telegram, sent from the 
American side to an outlying English land -station two 
days after a ship has left, has been transmitted to an out- 

229 



MODERN MECHANISM 

going steamer, which in turn has re-transmitted it to the 
astonished passenger two days prior to his arrival off the 
English coast ; and it has now become quite a common 
thing for competing teams on vessels many miles apart, 
and out of sight of each other, to arrange chess matches 
with each other, some of these interesting events taking 
two or more days to be played to a finish.*'''* 

For naval purposes, wireless telegraphy has assumed an 
importance which can hardly be overestimated, as the 
whole efficiency of a fine fleet may depend upon a single 
message flashed through space. All navies are fitting in- 
struments, the British Admiralty being well to the fore. 
Even in manoeuvres and during the execution of tactical 
formations the apparatus is constantly at worL The 
admiral gives the word, and a dozen paper tapes moving 
jerkily through Morse machines, pass the message round 
the fleet. The Japanese naval successes have, doubtless, 
been largely due to their up-to-date employment of this 
latest development of Western electrical science. No one 
knows how soon the time may come when the fate of 
a nation may depend on the proper working of a machine 
covering a few square feet of a cabin table ; for, rapid as 
has been the growth of wireless telegraphy, it is yet in its 
infancy. 

SAFETY DEVICES 

A ship is usually divided into compartments by cross 
bulkheads of steel. In event of a collision or damage by 
torpedoes or shell, the water i*ushing through the break 
can be prevented from swamping the ship by closing the 
bulkhead doors. 

* Charles V. Daly, in The Magazine of Commerce. 
230 



THE MACHINERY OF A SHIP 

Messrs. J. Stone and Company, of Deptford, have 
patented a system of hydraulically operated bulkhead 
doors, which is finding great favour among shipbuilders 
on account of its versatility. Each door is closed by an 
hydraulic cylinder placed above it. The valves of the 
cylinder are opened automatically by a float when the 
water rises in the compartment, and every cylinder is also 
controllable independently from the bridge and other 
stations in the ship, and by separate hand levers alongside 
the bulkhead. 

The doors can therefore be closed collectively or in- 
dividually. Should it happen that, when a door has been 
closed, someone is imprisoned, the prisoner can open the 
door by depressing a lever inside the compartment, and 
make his escape. But the door is closed behind him by 
the action of the float. 

THE TRANSMISSION OF POWER ON A SHIP 

There are four power agents available on board ship, 
all derived directly or indirectly from the steam boilers. 
They are : — 

(1) Steam. 

(2) High-pressure water. 

(3) Compressed air. 

(4) Electricity. 

On some ships we may find all four working side by 
side to drive the multifarious auxiliaries, since each has 
its peculiar advantages and disadvantages. At the same 
time, marine engineers prefer to reduce the number as 
far as possible, since each class of transmission needs 
specially trained mechanics, and introduces its special 
complications. 

231 



MODERN MECHANISM 

Let us take the four agents in order and briefly con- 
sider their value. 

Steam is so largely^ used in all departments of engineer- 
ing that its working is better understood by the bulk of 
average mechanics than hydraulic power, compressed air, 
or electricity. But for marine work it has very serious 
drawbacks, especially on a war vessel. Imagine a ship 
which contains a network of steam-pipes running from 
end to end, and from side to side. The pipes must, on 
account of the many obstacles they encounter, twist and 
turn about in a manner which might be avoided on land, 
where room is more available. Every bend means friction 
and loss of power. Again, the condensation of steam in 
long pipes is notorious. Even if they are well jacketed, 
a great deal of heat will radiate from the ducts into the 
below-deck atmosphere, which is generally too close and 
hot to be pleasant without any such further warming. 
So that, while power is lost, discomfort increases, with 
a decided lowering of human efficiency. We must not 
forget, either, the risk attending the presence of a steam- 
pipe. Were it broken, by accident or in a naval engage- 
ment, a great loss of life might result, or, at least, the 
abandonment of all neighbouring machinery. 

For these reasons there is, therefore, a tendency to 
abolish the direct use of steam in the auxiliary machinery 
of a modem vessel. 

High-pressure water is free from heating and danger 
troubles, and consequently is used for much heavy work, 
such as training guns, raising ashes and ammunition, and 
steering. One of its great advantages is its inelasticity, 
which prevents the overrunning of gear worked by it. 

232 



THE MACHINERY OF A SHIP 

Water, being incompressible, gives a " positive "*' drive ; 
thus, if the pump delivers a pint at each stroke in the 
engine-room a pint must pass into the motor, assuming 
that all joints are tight, and the work due from the 
passage of one pint is done. Air and steam — and 
electricity too, if not very delicately controlled — are apt 
to work in fits and starts when operating against varying 
resistance, and " run away "" from the engineer. 

An objection to hydraulic power is, that all leakage 
from the system must be replaced by fresh water manu- 
factured on board, which, as we have seen, is no easy 
task. 

Compressed air^ like steam, may cause explosions ; but 
when it escapes in small quantities only it has a beneficial 
effect in cooling and freshening the air below decks. The 
exhaust from an air-driven motor is welcome for the same 
reason, that it aids ventilation. On a fighting ship it is 
of the utmost importance that the personnel should be in 
good physical condition ; and when the battle-hatches 
have been battened down for an engagement any supply 
of fresh oxygen means an increased " staying power '*'' for 
officers and crew. Poisoned air brings mental slackness, 
and weakening of resolve ; so that if the motive power of 
heavy machinery can be made to do a second duty, so 
much the better for all concerned. 

Compressed air also proves useful as a water-excluder. 
If a vessel contain, as it should, a number of water-tight 
compartments, any water rushing into one of these can be 
expelled by injecting air until the pressure inside is equal 
to that of the draught of water of the vessel outside. 

On land compressed-air installations inchide reservoirs 

233 



MODERN MECHANISM 

of large size in which air can be stored till needed, and 
which take the place of the accumulator used with 
hydraulic power. On shipboard want of space reduces 
such reservoirs to minimum dimensions, so that the com- 
pressors must squirt their air almost directly into the 
cylinders which do the work. When the load, or work, 
is constantly varying, this direct drive proves somewhat 
of a nuisance, since the compressors, if worked continuously 
at their maximum capacity, must waste large quantities 
of air, while if run spasmodically, as occasion demands, 
they require much more attention. It is therefore con- 
sidered advisable by some marine engineers to make 
compressed air perform as many functions as possible 
when it is present on a vessel. The United States monitor 
Terror is an instance of a warship which depends on this 
agency for working her guns and turrets, handling ammu- 
nition, and — a somewhat unusual practice — controlling 
the helm. The last operation is performed by two large 
cylinders placed face to face athwart the ship. They have 
a common piston-rod, in the middle of which is a slot for 
the tiller to pass through. Air is admitted to the cylinders 
by a valve which is controlled by wires passing over a train 
of wheels from different stations on the ship. An in- 
genious device automatically prevents the tiller from 
moving over too fast, and also helps to lessen the shocks 
given to the rudder by a heavy sea. 

We now come to electricity^ the fourth and most modern 
form of transmission. Its chief recommendation is that 
the wires through which it flows lend themselves readily 
to a tortuous course without in any way throttling the 
passage of power. And as every ship must carry a 

234 



THE MACHINERY OF A SHIP 

generating plant for lighting purposes, the same staff will 
serve to tend a second plant for auxiliary machinery. 
Electric motors work with practically no vibration, are 
light for their power, and can be very easily controlled 
from a distance. They therefore enjoy increasing favour ; 
and are found in deck-winches, anchor-capstans, ammuni- 
tion hoists, ventilation blowers, and cranes. They also 
control the movements of gun-turrets, having been found 
most suitable for this work. 

If the current were to get loose in a ship it would 
undoubtedly cause more damage than an escape of com- 
pressed air or water. Electricity, even when every known 
means of keeping it within bounds has been tried, is 
suspected of causing deterioration to the metalwork of 
ships. But these disadvantages are not serious enough 
to hamper the progress of electrical science as applied to 
marine engineering ; and the undoubted economy of the 
electric motor, its noiselessness, its manageableness, and 
comparatively small size will, no doubt, in the future 
lead to its much more extensive use on board our floating 
palaces and floating forts. 



235 



CHAPTER XIII 
"THE NURSE OF THE NAVY" 

JUST as a navy requires floating distilleries, float- 
ing coal stores and floating docks, so does it find 
ven.- important uses for a floating workshop, which 
can accompany a fleet to sea and execute such repairs 
as might otherwise entail the return of a ship to port. 

The British Navy has a valuable ally of this kind in 
the torpedo depot ship Vulcaji^ which contains so much 
machinery, in addition to the " auxiharies *" already de- 
scribed, that a short account of this vessel will be inter- 
esting. 

The Vulcan, known as "The Nurse of the Navy,*" was 
laiinched in 1889. She measures 350 feet in length, 58 
feet in beam, and has a displacement of 6,830 tons. Her 
bunkers, of which there are twenty-one. hold 1,000 tons of 
coal, independently of an extra 300 io::s which can be 
stowed in other neighbouring compartments. 'VATien 
fully coaled she can cruise for 7,000 miles at a speed of 
10 knots ; or travel at first-dass cruiser speed for shorter 
distances. 

The !:::-: -:::k::._: :':"-cts on the Vulcan are two huge 
hyd: I. : r nes. placed almost amidships abreast of 
one aLo::^:. They have a total height of 65 feet, and 
•* overhang:" 35 leet. so as to be able to lift boats when the 

236 



ll 




I 



"THE NURSE OF THE NAVY" 

torpedo-nets are out and the sides of the vessel cannot 
be approached. The feet of the cranes sink 30 feet 
through the ship to secure rigidity, and the upper deck, 
which bears most of the strain, is strongly reinforced. 
Inside the pillar of each crane is the lifting machinery, 
an hydraulic ram 17| inches in diameter and of 10-foot 
stroke. By means of fourfold pulleys the lift is increased 
to 40 feet. When working under the full pressure of 
1,000 lbs. to the square inch, the cranes have a hoisting 
power of twenty tons. In addition to the main ram there 
is a much smaller one, the function of which is to keep 
the " slings '' (or cables by which the boat is hoisted) taut 
after a boat has been hooked until the actual moment of 
lifting comes. But for this arrangement there would 
be a danger of the slings slackening as the boat rises and 
falls in a sea-way. The small ram controls the larger, 
and the latter cannot come into action until its auxiliary 
has tightened up the slings, so that no dangerous jerk can 
occur when the hoisting begins. 

The cranes are revolved by two sets of hydraulic rams, 
which operate chains passing round drums at the feet of 
the cranes, and turn them through three-quarters of a circle. 

On the VulcarCs deck lie six torpedo boats and three 
despatch boats. The former are 60 feet long, and can 
attain a speed of 16 knots an hour. When an enemy 
is sighted these would be sent off* to worry the hostile 
vessels with their deadly torpedoes, and on their return 
would be quickly picked up and restored to their berths, 
ready for further use. 

The cranes also serve to lift on board heavy pieces of 
machinery from other vessels for repair. 

237 



MODERN MECHANISM 

Down below decks is the workshop, wherein "jobs'" 
are done on the high seas. It has quite a respectable 
equipment : five lathes, ranging from 15 feet to 3 J feet 
in length ; drilling, planing, slotting, shaping, punching 
machines ; a carpenter's bench ; fitters'* benches ; and a 
furnace for melting steel. There is also a blacksmith's 
shop with an hydraulic forging press and a forge 
blown by machinery ; not to mention a large array 
of tools of all kinds. Special ""engines are installed to 
operate the repairs department. 

The Vulcan also carries search-lights of 25,000 candle- 
power ; bilge pumps which will deliver over 5,000 tons of 
water per hour; two sets of engines for supplying the 
hydraulic machinery ; air-compressing engines to feed the 
Whitehead torpedoes ; a distilling plant ; and last, but by 
no means least, main engines of 12,000 h.p. drawing steam 
from four huge cylindrical boilers 17 feet long and 14 feet 
in diameter. 

Altogether, the Vulcan is a very complete floating work- 
shop, sufficiently speedy to keep up with a fleet, and even 
to do scouting work. Her guns and her torpedo craft 
would render her a very troublesome customer in a fight, 
though, being practically unarmoured, she would keep as 
clear of the conflict as possible, acting on the offensive 
through the proxy of her " hornets.'' She constitutes the 
first of a type of vessel which has been suggested by 
experts, viz. one of high speed and unarmoured, but 
capable of carrying a swarm of torpedo boats which could 
be launched in pursuit of the foe. Even if 50 per cent, 
of the craft were destroyed, the price would be small if 
a single torpedo were successfully fired at a battleship. 

238 



"THE NURSE OF THE NAVY" 

The naval motor boat, to which reference has ah'eady 
been made, would just "fill the bill"*** for such a cruiser; 
and in the event of a score of them being dropped into 
the water at a critical moment, they might easily turn the 
scale in favour of their side. 



339 



CHAPTER XIV 
THE MECHANISM OF DIVING 

DIVING being a profession which can be carried on 
in its simplest form with the simplest possible 
apparatus — merely a rope and a stone — its his- 
tory reaches back into the dim and inexplorable past. 
We may well believe that the first man who explored the 
depths of the sea for treasure lived as long ago as the first 
seeker for minerals in the bosom of the earth. Even when 
we come to the various appliances which have been 
gradually developed in the course of centuries, our re- 
cords are very imperfect. Alexander the Great is said to 
have descended in a machine which kept him dry, while 
he sought for fresh worlds to conquer below the waves. 
Aristotle mentions a device enabling men to remain some 
time under water. This is all the information, and a very 
meagre total, too, that we get from classical times. 

Stepping across 1,500 years we reach the thirteenth cen- 
tury, about the middle of which Roger Bacon is said to 
have invented the diving-bell. But like some other dis- 
coveries attributed to that Middle- Age physicist, the 
authenticity of this rests on very slender foundations. In 
a book published early in the sixteenth century there 
appears an illustration of a diver wearing a cap or 
helmet, to which is attached a leather tube floated on the 

240 



THE MECHANISM OF DIVING 

surface of the water by an inflated bag. This is evidently 
the diving dress in its crudest form ; and when we read 
how, in 1538, two Greeks made a submarine trip under a 
huge inverted chamber, which kept them dry, in the 
presence of the great Emperor Charles V. and some 
12,000 spectators, we recognise the diving-bell, now so 
well known. 

The latter device did not reach a really practical form 
till 1717, when Dr. Halley, a member of the Royal 
Society, built a bell of wood lined with lead. The divers 
were supplied with air by having casks-full lowered to 
them as required. To quote his own words : " To supply 
air to this bell under water, I caused a couple of barrels 
of about thirty gallons each to be cased with lead, so 
as to sink empty, each of them having a bunghole in its 
lowest parts to let in the water, as the air in them 
condensed on their descent, and to let it out again when 
they were drawn up full from below. And to a hole in 
the uppermost parts of these barrels I fixed a leathern 
hose, long enough to fall below the bunghole, being kept 
down by a weight appended, so that the air in the upper 
parts of the barrels could not escape, unless the lower ends 
of these hose were first lifted up. The air-barrels being 
thus prepared, I fitted them with tackle proper to make 
them rise and fall alternately, after the manner of two 
buckets in a well ; and in their descent they were directed 
by lines fastened to the under edge of the bell, which 
passed through rings on both sides of the leathern hose in 
each barrel, so that, sliding down by these lines, they 
came readily to the hand of a man, who stood on purpose 
to receive them, and to take up the ends of the hose into 

Q 241 



MODERN MECHANISM 

the bell. Through these hose, as soon as their ends came 
above the surface of the water in the barrels, all the air that 
was included in the upper parts of them was blown with 
great force into the bell, whilst the water entered at the 
bungholes below and filled them, and as soon as the air of 
one barrel had been thus received, upon a signal given that 
v/as drawn up, and at the same time the other descended, 
and by an alternate succession, provided air so quick and in 
such plenty that I myself have been one of five who have 
been together at the bottom, in nine to ten fathoms 
water, for above an hour and a half at a time, without any 
sort of ill-consequence, and I might have continued there 
so long as I pleased for anything that appeared to the 
contrary.'*' After referring to the fact that, when the sea 
was clear and the sun shining, he could see to read or 
write in the submerged bell, thanks to a glass window in 
it, the Doctor goes on to say : " This I take to be an inven- 
tion applicable to various uses, such as fishing for pearls, 
diving for coral or sponges and the like, in far greater 
depths than has hitherto been thought possible ; also for 
the fitting and placing of the foundations of moles, 
bridges, etc., in rocky bottoms, and for cleaning and 
scrubbing ships' bottoms when foul, in calm weather at 
sea. I shall only intimate that, by an additional con- 
trivance^ I have found it not impracticable for a diver to 
go out of an engine to a good distance from it, the air 
being conveyed to him with a continued stream by small 
flexible pipes, which pipes may serve as a clue to direct 
him back again when he would return to the bell,'' 

We have italicised certain words to draw attention to 
the fact that Dr. Halley had invented not only the 

242 



THE MECHANISM OF DIVING 

diving bell, but also the diving dress. Though he fore- 
saw practically all the uses to which diving mechanism 
could be put, the absence of a means for forcing air 
under pressure into the bell or dress greatly limited the 
utility of his contrivances, since the deeper they sank 
below the water the further would the latter rise inside 
them. It was left for John Smeaton, of Eddystone 
Lighthouse fame, to introduce the air-pump as an 
auxiliary, which, by making the pressure of the air 
inside the bell equal to that of the water outside, kept 
the bell quite free of water. Smeaton replaced Halley'^s 
tub by a square, solid cast-iron box, 50 cwt. in weight, 
large enough to accommodate two men at a time. The 
modern bell is merely an enlarged edition of this type, 
furnished with telephones, electric lamps, and, in some 
cases, with a special air-lock, into which the men may 
pass when the bell is raised. The pressure in the air- 
lock is very gradually decreased after the bell has reached 
the surface, if work has been conducted at great depths, 
so that the evil effects sometimes attending a sudden 
change of pressure on the body may be avoided. 

Diving bells are very useful for laying submarine 
masonry, usually consisting of huge stone blocks set in 
hydraulic cement. Helmet divers explore and prepare 
the surface on which the blocks are to be placed. Then 
the bell, slung either from a crane on the masonry 
already built above water-level, or from a specially fitted 
barge, comes into action. The block is lowered by its 
own crane on to the bottom. The bell descends upon 
it and the crew seize it with tackle suspended inside the 
bell. Instructions are sent up as to tlie direction in 

243 



MODERN MECHANISM 

which the bell should be moved with its burden, and 
as soon as the exact spot has been reached the signal 
for lowering is given, and the stone settles on to the 
cement laid ready for it. 

The modern diver is not sent out from a bell, but 
has his separate and independent apparatus. The first 
practical diving helmet was that of Kleingert, a German. 
This enclosed the diver as far as the waist, and con- 
stituted a small diving bell, since the bottom was open 
for the escape of vitiated air. Twenty years later, or 
just a century after the invention of Halley'^s bell, 
Augustus Siebe, the founder of the present great London 
firm of Siebe, Gorman, and Company, produced a more 
convenient " open **"* dress, consisting of a copper helmet 
and shoulder-plate in one piece, attached to a waterproof 
jacket reaching to the hips. 

The disadvantage of the open dress was, that the 
diver had to maintain an almost upright position, or 
the w^ater would have invaded his helmet. Mr. Siebe 
therefore added a necessary improvement, and extended 
the dress to the feet, giving his diver a "close''' protec- 
tion from the water. 

We may pass over the gradual development of the 
"close"' dress and glance at the most up-to-date equip- 
ment in which the " toilers of the deep "" explore the 
bed of Old Ocean. 

The dress — legging, body, and sleeves — is all in one 
piece, with a large-enough opening at the shoulders for 
the body to pass through. The helmet, with front and 
side windows, is attached by a "bayonet joint"" to the 
shoulder-plate, itself made fast to the upper edge of the 

244 





THE DIVICR A'l' WORK 

Note the telephone attachment, the wires of which are enihetkled in the life-line 
hcKl hy the hluejacket i>\\ (he left. \)\ means of the telephone the diver can 
L;ive and receive lull instructions about his work. 



THE MECHANISM OF DIVING 

dress by screws which press a metal ring against the lower 
edge of the plate so as to pinch the edge of the dress. 

At the back are an inlet and an outlet valve. Between 
the front and a side window is the transmitter of a loud- 
sounding telephone, and in the crown the receiver and 
the button of an electric bell. The telephone wires, 
and also the wires for a powerful electric light, working 
on a ball-and-socket joint in front of the dress, are 
embedded into the life-line. The air-tube, of canvas and 
rubber, has a stiiFening of wire to prevent its being 
throttled on coming into contact with any object. A 
pair of weighted boots, each scaling 17 lbs., two 40-lb. 
lead weights slung over the shoulder, and a knife worn 
at the waist-belt, complete the outfit of the diver, which, 
not including the several layers of underclothing necessary 
to exclude the cold found at great depths, totals nearly 
140 lbs. Of this the copper helmet accounts for 36 lbs. 

On the surface are the air-pumps, which may be of 
several types — single - cylinder, double - acting ; double - 
cylinder, double-acting ; or three or four cylinder, single- 
acting — according to the nature of the work. All 
patterns are so constructed that the valves may be 
easily removed and examined. 

The pressure on a diver increases in the ratio of about 
4^ lbs. for every ten feet he descends below the surface. 
A novice experiences severe pains in the ears and eyes at 
a few fathoms' depth, which, however, pass off when the 
pressures both inside and outside of the various organs 
have become equalised. On rising to the surface again 
the pains recur, since the external pressure on the body 
falls more quickly than the internal. The rule for all 

245 



MODERN MECHANISM 

divers, therefore, is " slow down, slow up."'' Men of good 
constitution and resourcefulness are needed for the pro- 
fession of diving. Only a few can work at extreme 
depths, though an old hand is able to remain for several 
hours at a time in sixty feet of water. The record depth 
reached by a diver is claimed by James Hooper, who, 
when removing the cargo of the Cape Horn^ wrecked off* 
the coast of South America, made seven descents to 
201 feet, one of which lasted forty-two minutes. 

In spite of the dangers and inconveniences attached to 
his calling, the diver finds in it compensations, and even 
fascinations, which outweigh its disadvantages. The pay 
is good — £1 to £2 a day — and in deep-sea salvage he 
often gets a substantial percentage of all the treasure 
recovered, the percentage rising as the depth increases. 
Thus the diver Alexander Lambert, who performed some 
plucky feats during the driving of the Severn Tunnel,* 
received £4,000 for the recovery of £70,000 worth of gold 
from the Alphonso XII. ^ sunk off* Grand Canary. Divers 
Ridyard and Penk recovered £50,000 from the Hamilla 
Mitchell^ which lay in 160 feet of water off* Shanghai, 
after nearly being captured by Chinese pirates ; and we 
could add many other instances in which treasure has been 
rescued from the maw of the sea. 

The most useful sphere for a diver is undoubtedly 
connected with the harbour work and the cleaning of 
ships'* bottoms. For the latter purpose every large war- 
ship in the British Navy carries at least one diver. After 
ships have been long in the water barnacles and marine 
growths accumulate on the below-water plates in such 

* Vide The Romance of Modern Enginee^nng, p. 212. 
246 



THE MECHANISM OF DIVING 

quantities as to seriously diminish the ship's speed, which 
means a great waste of fuel, and would entail a loss 
of efficiency in case of war breaking out. Armed with 
the proper tools, a gang of divers will soon clean the 
" foul bottom.''^ at a much smaller cost of time and money 
than would be incurred by dry-docking the vessel. 

The Navy has at Portsmouth, Sheerness, and Devonport 
schools where diving is taught to picked men, the depth 
in which they work being gradually increased to 120 feet. 
Messrs. Siebe and Gorman employ hundreds of divers in 
all parts of the world, on all kinds of submarine work, 
and they are able to boast that never has a defect in their 
apparatus been responsible for a single death. This is 
due both to the very careful tests to which every article 
is subjected before it leaves their works, and also to the 
thorough training given to their employes. 

In the sponge and pearl-fishing industries the diving 
dress is gradually ousting the unaided powers of the naked 
diver. One man equipped with a standard dress can do 
the work of twenty natural divers, and do it more effi- 
ciently, as he can pick and choose his material. 

This chapter may conclude with a reference to the 
apparatus now used in exploring or rescue work in mines, 
where deadly fumes have overcome the miners. It consists 
of an air-tight mask connected by tubes to a chamber full 
of oxygen and to a bag containing materials which absorb 
the carbonic acid of exhaled air. The wearer uses the 
same air over and over again, and is able to remain 
independent of the outer atmosphere for more than an 
hour. The apparatus is also useful for firemen when they 
have to pass through thick smoke. 

247 



CHAFl^ER XV 

APPARATUS FOR RAISING SUNKEN 
SHIPS AND TREASURE 

IT is somewhat curious that, wliile the sciences con- 
nected with the building of ships have progressed 
with giant strides, little attention has been paid to 
the art of raising vessels which have found watery graves 
in comparatively shallow depths. The total shipping 
losses of a single year make terrible reading, since they 
represent the extinction of many brave sailors and the 
disappearance of huge masses of the world's wealth. A 
life lost is lost for ever, but cargoes can be recovered if 
not sunk in water deeper than 180 feet. Yet with all our 
modem machinery the percentage of vessels raised from 
even shallow depths is small. 

There are practically only two methods of raising a 
foundered ship : first, to caulk up all leaks and pump 
her dry ; and secondly, to pass cables under her, and lift 
her bodily by the aid of pontoons, or " camels."" 

The second method is that more generally used, 
especially in the estuaries of big rivers where there is a 
considerable tide. The pontoons, having a united dis- 
placement greater than that of the vessel to be raised, 
are brought over her at low tide. Divers pass under her 
bottom huge steel cables, which are attached to the 

248 



RAISING SUNKEN SHIPS 

" camels/' As the tide flows the pontoons sink until they 
have displaced a weight of water equal to that of the 
vessel, and then they begin to raise her, and can be towed 
into shallower water, to repeat the process if necessary 
next tide. As soon as the deck is above water the vessel 
may be pumped empty, when all leaks have been stopped. 

In water where there is no tide the natural lift must be 
replaced by artificial power. Under such circumstances 
the salvage firms use lighters provided with powerful 
winches, each able to lift up to 800 tons on huge steel 
cables nearly a foot in diameter. The winches can be 
moved across a lighter, the cables falling perpendicularly, 
through transverse wells almost dividing the lighter into 
separate lengths, so as to get a direct pull. If the wreck 
has only half the displacement of the lighters, the cables 
can be passed over rollers on the inner edges of the 
pontoons, the weight of the raising vessel being counter- 
acted by water let into compartments in the outer side of 
the pontoons. 

There are ten great salvage companies in the British 
Isles and Europe. The best equipped of these is the 
Neptune Company, of Stockholm, which has raised 1,500 
vessels, worth over £5,000,000 sterling even in their 
damaged condition, among them the ill-fated submarine 
" A 1.'" Yet this total represents but a small part of the 
wealth that has gone to the bottom within a short dis- 
tance of our coasts. 

Turning from the salvage of wrecks to the salvage of 
precious metal and bulky objects that are known to strew 
the sea-floor in many places, we must notice the Hydro- 
scope, the invention of Cavaliere Pino, an Italian. 

249 



MODERN MECHANISM 

In 1702 there sank in Vigo Bay, on the north-west 
coast of Spain, twenty-five galleons laden with treasure 
from America, as the result of an attack by English and 
Dutch men-of-war. Gold representing £28,000,000 was 
on those vessels. Down it went to the bottom, and there 
it is still. 

So rich a prize has naturally not failed to attract daring 
spirits, among whom was Giuseppe Pino. This inventor 
has produced many devices, the most notable among them 
the hydroscope, which may best be described as a huge 
telescope for peering into the depths of the sea. A large 
circular tank floats on the top of the water. From the 
centre of its bottom hangs a series of tubes fitting one 
into the other, so that the whole series can be shortened 
or lengthened at will. Through the tubes a man can 
descend to the chamber at their lower extremity, in the 
sides of which are twelve lenses specially made by 
Saint Goubin, of Paris, which act as submarine tele- 
scopes. 

Pino's hydroscope has been at work for some time in 
Vigo Bay, its operations closely watched by a Spanish war 
vessel, which will exact 20 per cent, of all treasure re- 
covered. While the hydroscope acts as an eye, the lifting 
of an object is accomplished by attaching to it large 
canvas bags furnished with air-tight internal rubber 
bladders. These have air pumped into them till its pres- 
sure overcomes that of the water outside, and the bag 
then rises like a cork, carrying its load wath it. An 
" elevator '''' — nine sacks fixed to one frame — will raise 
twenty-fis^e to thirty tons. 

So far Cavaliere Pino has salvaged old Spanish guns, 

250 



RAISING SUNKEN SHIPS 

cannon-balls, and pieces of valuable old wood ; and pre- 
sently he may alight on the specie which is the main 
object of his search. 

Another Spanish wreck, the Florida^ which was a unit 
of the Spanish Armada, and sank in Tobermory Bay, the 
Isle of Mull, has many times been attacked by divers. 
The last attempt made to recover the treasure which that 
ill-fated vessel was reputed to bear is that of the steam 
lighter Sealight^ which employed a very powerful sand 
pump to suck up any objects which it might encounter on 
the sea-bottom. Many interesting relics have been raised 
by the pumps and attendant divers — coins, bones, jewels, 
timbers, cannon, muskets, pistols, swords, and a compass, 
which is so constructed that pressure on the top causes 
the legs to spread. One of the cannon, fifty-four inches 
long, has a separate powder chamber, the shot and wad 
still in the gun, and traces of powder in the chamber. 
It is curious that what we usually consider so modern an 
invention as the breech-loading cannon should be found 
side by side with stone balls. The heavier objects were, of 
course, raised by divers. In this quest also the treasure 
deposit has not yet been tapped. 



251 



CHAPTER XVI 
THE HANDLING OF GRAIN 

THE ELEVATOR THE SUCTION PNEUMATIC GRAIN-LIFTER THE 

PNEUMATIC BLAST GRAIN-LIFTER THE COMBINED SYSTEM 

THE ELEVATOR 

ON or near the quays of our large seaports, London, 
Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol, Hull, Leith, Dub- 
lin, may be seen huge buildings of severe and 
ugly outline, utterly devoid of any attempt at decoration. 
Yet we should view them with respect, for they are to the 
inhabitants of the British Isles what the inland granaries 
of Egypt were to the dwellers by the Nile in the time 
of Joseph. Could we strip off the roofs and walls of 
these structures, we should see vast bins full of wheat, or 
spacious floors deeply strewn with the material for countless 
loaves. The grain warehouses of Britain — the Americans 
would term them " elevators "" — have a total capacity of 
10,000,000 quarters. Multiply those figures by eight, and 
you have the number of bushels, each of which will yield 
the flour for about forty 2-lb. loaves. 

In these granaries is stored the grain which comes from 
abroad. With the opening up of new lands in North and 
South America, and the exploitation of the great wheat- 
growing steppes of Russia, English agriculture has de- 
clined, and we are content to import five-sixths of our 

252 



THE HANDLING OF GRAIN 

breadstuffs, and an even larger proportion of grain foods 
for domestic animals. It arrives from the United States, 
India, Russia, Argentina, Canada, and Australia in vessels 
often built specially for grain transport ; and as it cannot 
be immediately distributed, must be stored in bulk in 
properly designed buildings. 

These contain either many storeys, over which the 
grain is spread to get rid of superfluous moisture which 
might cause dangerous heating; or huge bins, or "silos,*''' in 
which it can be kept from contact with the air. Experi- 
ments have proved that wheat is more successfully pre- 
served if the air is excluded than if left in the open, 
provided that it is dry. The ancient Egyptians used 
brick granaries, filled from the top, and tapped at the 
bottom, in which, to judge by the account of a grievous 
famine given in the book of Genesis, their wheat was 
preserved for at least seven years. During last century 
the silo fell into disrepute ; but now we have gone back to 
the Egyptian plan of closed bins, which are constructed 
of wood, brick, ferro-concrete, or iron, and are of square, 
hexagonal, or round section. They are set close together, 
many under one roof, to economise space ; as many as 
2,985,000 bushels being provided for in the largest Eng- 
lish storehouse. 

Such vast quantities of grain require well-devised 
machinery for their transport from ship to bin or 
floor, weighing, clearing, and for their transference to 
barges, coasting vessels, or railway trucks. The Alexander 
Grain Warehouse of Liverpool may be taken as a typical 
example of a well-equipped silo granary. It measures 
240 by 172 feet, and contains 250 hexagonal bins of 

253 



MODERN mechanism: 

brickwork, each 80 feet deep and 12 feet in diameter. 
The grain is lifted from barges by four elevators placed 
at intervals along the edge of the quay. The elevator is 
a wooden case, 40 or 50 feet high, in which an endless 
band furnished with buckets travels over two rollers placed 
at the top and bottom. These are let down into the hold 
and scoop up the grain at the rate of from 75 to 150 tons 
per hour, according to their size. As soon as a bucket 
reaches the top roller it empties its charge into a spout, 
which delivers the grain into a bin, whence it is 
lifted again 32 feet by a second elevator to a bin from 
which it flows by gravity to a weighing hopper beneath ; 
and as soon as two tons has collected, the contents are 
emptied automatically into a distributing hopper. After 
all this, the grain still has a long journey before it ; for 
it is now shot out on to an endless, flat conveyer belt 
moving at a rate of 9 to 10 feet per second. It is caiTied 
horizontally by this for some distance along the quay, and 
falls on to a second belt moving at right angles to the 
first, which whisks it off* to the receiving elevators of the 
storehouse. Once more it is lifted, this time 132 feet, to 
the top floor of the building, and dropped on to a third 
belt, which runs over a movable throwing-off* carriage. 
This can be placed at any point of the belt's travel, to 
transfer the grain to any of the spouts leading to the 250 
bins. 

Here it rests for a time. When needed for the market 
it flows out at the bottom of a bin on to belts leading to 
delivery elevators, from which it may be either passed back 
to a storage bin after being well aired, or shot into 
wagons or vessels. From first to last a single grain may 

254 



THE HANDLING OF GRAIN 

have to travel three miles between the ship and the truck 
without being touched once by a human hand. 

The vertical transport of grain is generally effected by 
an endless belt, to which buckets are attached at short 
intervals. The grain, fed to the buckets either by hand 
or by mechanical means, is scooped up, whirled aloft, and 
when it has passed the topmost point of its travel, and 
just as the bucket is commencing the descent, it flies by 
centrifugal force into a hopper which guides it to the 
travelling belt, as already described. 

Of late years, however, much attention has been paid to 
pneumatic methods of elevating, by which a cargo is 
transferred from ship to storehouse, or from ship to ship, 
through flexible tubes, the motive power being either the 
pressure of atmospheric air rushing in to fill a vacuum, or 
high-pressure air which blows the grain through the tube 
in much the same way as a steam injector forces water 
into a boiler. Sometimes both systems are used in com- 
bination. We will first consider these methods separ- 
ately. 

THE SUCTION PNEUMATIC GRAIN-LIFTER 

is the invention of Mr. Fred E. Duckham, engineer of 
the Millwall Docks, London. The ships in which grain is 
brought to England often contain a "mixed*" cargo as 
well ; and that the unloading of this may proceed simul- 
taneously with the moving of the wheat it is necessary 
to keep the hatches clear. As long as the grain is directly 
under a hatchway, a bucket elevator can reach it ; but all 
that is not so conveniently situated must be brought 
within range of the buckets. This means a large bill for 

255 



MODERN MECHANISM 

labour, even if machinery is employed to help the " trim- 
ming.**^ ]\Ir. Duckham therefore designed an elevator which 
could easily reach any corner of a ship^s interior. The 
principal paits are a large cylindrical air-tight tank, an 
engine to exhaust air from the same, and long hoses, 
armoured inside with a steel lining, connected at one end 
to the tank, and furnished at the other with a nozzle. 
These hoses extend from the receiving tank to the grain, 
which, when the air has been exhausted to five or six pounds 
to the square inch, flies up the tubes into the tank. At the 
bottom of the tank are ingenious air-locks, to allow the 
grain to pass into a bin below without admitting air to 
spoil the vacuum. The locks are automatic, and as soon 
as a certain quantity of grain has collected, tip sideways, 
closing the port through which it flowed, and allowing it 
to drop through a hinged door. Two locks are attached 
together, the one discharging while the other is filling. An 
elevator of this kind will shift 150 tons or more an hour. 
Mr. Duckham claims for his invention that it has no 
limit in capacity. It is practically independent of every- 
thing but its own steam power; and the labour of one 
man suffices to keep its flexible suckers buried in grain. 
No corner is inaccessible to the nozzle. The pipes occupy 
only a very small part of the hatchway. They can be set 
to work immediately a vessel comes alongside. As many 
as a quarter of a million bushels are handled daily by one 
of these machines. 

The pneumatic elevator is often installed on a floating 
base, so that it may be moved about in a dock. 



256^ 



THE HANDLING OF GRAIN 

THE PNEUMATIC BLAST GRAIN-LIFTER 

differs from the system just described in that the grain is 
driven through the pipes or hoses by air compressed to 
several pounds above atmospheric pressure. A small tube 
attached to the main hose conveys compressed air to the 
nozzle through which grain enters the tube. The nozzle 
consists of a short length of metal piping which is buried 
in the grain. One half of it is encased by a jacket into 
which the compressed air rushes. As the air escapes at 
high speed past the inner end of the piping into the main 
hose, it causes a vacuum in the piping and draws in grain, 
which is shot up the hose by the pressure behind it. As 
already remarked, the action of this pneumatic elevator is 
similar to that of a steam injector. 

THE COMBINED SYSTEM 

Under some conditions it is found convenient to employ 
both suction and blast in combination : suction to draw 
the grain from a vessePs hold into elevators, from which 
it is transferred to the warehouse by blast. Special boats 
are built for this work, e.g. the Garryowen^ which has on 
board suction plant for transferring grain from a ship 
to barges, and also blowing apparatus for elevating it into 
storehouses or into another ship. The Garryowen has 
the hull and engines of an ordinary screw steamer, so 
that it can ply up and down the Shannon and partly 
unload a vessel to reduce its draught sufficiently to allow 
it to reach Limerick Docks. Floating elevators of this 
kind are able to handle upwards of 150 tons of grain per 
hour. 

R 257 



CHAPTER XVII 

MECHANICAL TRANSPORTERS AND 
CONVEYERS 

MECHANICAL CONVEYERS ROPEWAYS CABLEWAYS — TELPHERAGE 

COALING WARSHIPS AT SEA 

A MAN carrying a sack of coal over a plank laid 
from the wharf to the ship's side, a bricklayer's 
labourer moving slowly up a ladder with his hod 
of mortar — ^these illustrate the most primitive methods 
of shifting material from one spot to another. When 
the wheelbarrow is used in the one case, and a rope and 
pulley in the other, an advance has been made, but the 
effort is still great in proportion to the work accom- 
plished ; and were such processes universal in the great 
industries connected with mining and manufacture, the 
labour bill would be ruinous. 

The development of methods of transportation has gone 
on simultaneously with the improvement of machinery 
of all kinds. To be successful, an industry must be 
conducted economically throughout. Thus, to follow the 
history of wheat from the time that it is selected for 
sowing till it forms a loaf, we see it mechanically placed 
in the ground, mechanically reaped, threshed, and dressed, 
mechanically hauled to the elevator, mechanically trans- 
ferred to the bins of the same, mechanically shot into 

258 



TRANSPORTERS AND CONVEYERS 

trucks or a ship, mechanically raised into a flour-mill, 
where it is cleaned, ground, weighed, packed, and trucked 
by machinery, mechanically mixed with yeast and baked, 
and possibly distributed by mechanically operated vehicles. 
As a result we get a 2-lb. loaf for less than three- 
pence. Anyone who thinks that the price is regulated 
merely by the amount of wheat grown is greatly mis- 
taken, for the cheapness of handling and transportation 
conduces at least equally to the cheapness of the finished 
article. 

The same may be said of the metal articles with which 
every house is furnished. A fender v/ould be dearer than 
it is were not the iron ore cheaply transported from mine 
to rail, from rail to the smelting furnace, from the 
ground to the top of the furnace. In short, to whatever 
industry we look, in which large quantities of raw or 
finished material have to be moved, stored, and distributed, 
the mechanical conveyer has supplanted human labour to 
such an extent that it) lack of such devices we can scarcely 
conceive how the industry could be conducted without 
either proving ruinous to the people who control it or 
enhancing prices enormously. 

The types of elevators and conveyers now commonly 
used in all parts of the world are so numerous that in the 
following pages only some selected examples can be 
treated. 

Speaking broadly, the mechanical transporter can be 
classified under two main heads — (1) those which handle 
materials contimwusly ^ as in the case of belt conveyers, 
pneumatic grain dischargers, etc. ; and (2) those which 
work intermittently^ such as the telpher, whicli carries 

259 



MODERN MECHANISM 

skips on an aerial ropeway. The first class are most 
useful for short distances ; the latter for longer distances, 
or where the conditions are such that the material must 
be transported in large masses at a time by powerful 
grabs. 

Some transporters work only in a vertical direction ; 
others only horizontally ; while a third large section com- 
bine the two movements. Again, while some are mere 
conveyers of material shot into or attached to them, others 
scoop up their loads as they move. The distinctions in 
detail are numerous, and will be brought out in the 
chapters devoted to the various types. 

MECHANICAL CONVEYERS 

We have already noticed band conveyers in connection 
with the transportation of grain. They are also used for 
handling coal, coke, diamond " dirt,"' gold ore, and other 
minerals, and for moving filled sacks. The belts are 
sometimes made of rubber or of balata faced with rubber 
on the upper surface, which has to stand most of the wear 
and tear — sometimes of metal plates joined together by 
hinges at the ends. 

A modification of the belt is the continuous trough, 
with sloping or vertical sides. This is built of open- 
ended sections jointed so that they may pass round the 
terminal rollers. While travelling in a straight line 
the sides of the sections touch, preventing any escape 
of the material carried, but at the rollers the ends open 
in a V-shape. 

Another form of conveyer has a stationary trough 
through which the substance to be handled is pulled 

260 



i 



TRANSPORTERS AND CONVEYERS 



along by plates attached to cables or endless chains 
running on rollers. Or the moving agency may be 
plates dragged backwards and forwards periodically, the 
plates hanging in one direction only, like flap valves, so 
as to pass over the material during the backward stroke, 
and bite it during the forward stroke. The vibrating 
conveyer is a trough which moves bodily backwards and 
forwards on hinged supports, the oscillation gradually 
shaking its contents along. As no dragging or pushing 
plates are here needed, this form of conveyer is very 
suitable for materials which are liable to be injured by 
rough treatment. 

ROPEWAYS 

A certain person on asking what was the distance from 
X to Y, received the reply, " It is ten miles as the crow 
flies.''** The country being mountainous, the answer did 
not satisfy him, and he said, " Oh ! but you see, I am 
not a crow.**^ Engineers laying out a railway can sym- 
pathise with this gentleman, for they know from sad 
experience that places only a few miles apart in a straight 
line often require a track many miles long to connect 
them if gradients are to be kept moderate. 

Now a locomotive, a railway carriage, or a goods truck 
is very heavy, and must run on the firm bosom of Mother 
Earth. But for comparatively light bodies a path may 
be made which much more nearly resembles the proverbial 
flight of the crow, or, as our American cousins would say, a 
bee-line. If you have travelled in Norway and Switzerland 
you probably have noticed here and there steel wire ropes 
spanning a torrent or hanging across a narrow valley. 
Over these ropes the peasants shoot their hay crops or 

261 



MODERN MECHANISM 

wood faggots from the mountain-side to their homes, 
or to a point near a road where the material can be 
transferred to carts. Adventm'ous folk even dare to 
entrust their own bodies to the seemingly frail steel 
thread, using a brake to control the velocity of the 
descent. 

The history of the modern ropeway and cableway 
dates from the ""thirties, when the invention of wire rope 
supplied a flexible carrying agent of great strength in 
proportion to its weight, and of sufficient hardness to 
resist much wear and tear, and too inelastic to stretch 
under repeated stresses. To prevent confusion, we may 
at once state that a ropeway is an aerial track used only 
for the conveyance of material ; whereas a cableway hoists 
as well as conveys. A further distinction — though it 
does not hold good in all cases — may be seen in the fact 
that, while cableways are of a single span, ropeways are 
carried for distances ranging up to twenty miles over 
towers or poles placed at convenient intervals. 

Ropeways fall into two main classes : first, those in 
which the rope supporting the weight of the thing caiTied 
moves ; secondly, those in which the carrier rope is station- 
ary, and the skips, or tubs, etc., are dragged along it by a 
second rope. The moving rope system is best adapted for 
light loads, not exceeding six hundredweight or so ; but 
over the second class bodies scaling five or six tons have 
often been moved. In both systems the line may be 
single or double, according to the amount of traffic which 
it has to accommodate. The chief advantage of the 
double ropeway is that it permits a continuous service 
and an economy of power, since in cases where material 

262 



TRANSPORTERS AND CONVEYERS 

has to be delivered at a lower level than the point at 
which it is shipped, the weight of the descending full 
trucks can be utilised to haul up ascending empty trucks. 
Spans of 2,000 feet or two-fifths of a mile are not at all 
unusual in very rough country where the spots on which 
supports can be erected are few and far between ; but 
engineers naturally endeavour to make the span as short 
as possible, in order to be able to use a small size of rope. 
Glancing at some interesting ropeways, we may first 
notice that used in the construction of the new Beachy 
Head Lighthouse, recently erected on the foreshore below 
the head on which the original structure stands. For the 
sake of convenience, the workshops, storage yards, etc., 
were placed on the cliffs, 400 feet above the sea and some 
800 feet in a direct line from the site of the new light- 
house. Between the cliff* summit and a staging in the sea 
were stretched two huge steel ropes, the one, six inches in 
circumference, for the track over which the four-ton blocks 
of granite used in the building, machinery, tools, etc., 
should be lowered; the other, 5| inches in circum- 
ference, for the return of the carriers and trucks con- 
taining workmen. The ropes had a breaking strain of 
120 and 100 tons respectively; that is to say, if put 
in an hydraulic testing machine they would have with- 
stood pulls equal to those exerted by masses of these 
weights hung on them. Their top ends were anchored in 
solid rock ; their lower ends to a mass of concrete built 
up in the chalk forming the sea-bottom. When a granite 
block was attached to the carrier travelling on the rope, 
its weight was gradually transferred to the rope by lower- 
ing the truck on which it had arrived until the latter was 

263 



MODERN MECHANISM 

clear of the block. As soon as the stone started on its 
journey the truck was lifted again to the level of the rails 
and trundled away. A brakesman, stationed at a point 
whence he could command the whole ropeway, had under 
his hand the brake wheels regulating the movements of 
the trailing ropes for lowering and hauling on the two 
tracks. 

Another interesting ropeway is that at Hong-Kong, 
which transports the workmen in a sugar factory on the 
low, fever-breeding levels to their homes in the hills where 
they may sleep secure from noxious microbes. The 
carriers accommodate six men at a time, and move at the 
rate of eight miles an hour. The sensation of being 
hauled through mid-air must be an exhilarating one, and 
some of us would not mind changing places with the 
workmen for a trip or two, reassured by the fact that this 
ropeway has been in operation for several years without 
any accident. 

In Southern India, in the Anamalai Hills, a ropeway is 
used for delivering sawn timber from the forests to a point 
IJ miles below. Prior to the establishment of this rope- 
way the logs were sent down a circuitous mountain track 
on bullock carts. Its erection was a matter of great 
difficulty, on account of the steep gradients and the dense 
and unhealthy forest through which a path had to be cut ; 
not to mention the dragging uphill of a cable which, with 
the reel on which it was wound, weighed four tons. For this 
last operation the combined strength of nine elephants 
and a number of coolies had to be requisitioned, since the 
friction of the rope di^agging on the ground was enormous. 
However, the engineers soon had the cable stretched over 

264 



TRANSPORTERS AND CONVEYERS 

its supports, and the winding machinery in place at the 
top of the grade. The single rope serves for both up and 
down traffic ; a central crossing station being provided at 
which the descending can pass the ascending carrier. 
Seven sleepers at a time are sent flying down the track at 
a rate of twenty miles an hour : a load departing every 
half-hour. The saving of labour, time, and expense is said 
to be very great, and when the saw mills have a larger 
output the economy of working will be still more re- 
markable. 

The longest passenger ropeway ever built is probably 
that over the Chilkoot Pass in Alaska, which was con- 
structed in 1897 and 1898 to transport miners from Dyea 
to Crater Lake on their way to the Yukon goldfields. 
From Crater Lake to the Klondike the Yukon River 
serves as a natural road, but the climb to its head waters 
was a matter of great difficulty, especially during the 
winter months, and accompanied by much suffering. But 
when the trestles had been erected for the fixed ropes, two 
in number, miners and their kits were hauled over the 
seven miles at little physical cost, though naturally the 
charges for transportation ruled higher than in less 
rugged regions. The opening of the White Pass Railway 
from Skagway has largely abolished the need for this 
cable track, which has nevertheless done very useful work. 
The Chilkoot ropeway has at least two spans of over 
1,500 feet. As an engineering enterprise it claims our 
consideration, since the conveyance of ropes, timber, 
engines, etc., into so inhospitable a region, and the 
piecing of them together, demanded great persistence on 
the part of the engineers and their employes. 

265 



MODERN MECHANISM 

CABLEWAYS 

For removing the "overburden" of surface mines and 
dumping it in suitable places, for excavating canals, for 
dredging, and for many other operations in which matter 
has to be moved comparatively short distances, the cable- 
way is largely employed. We have already noticed that 
it differs from the ropeway in that it has to hoist and dis- 
charge its burdens as well as convey them. 

The cableway generally consists of a single span be- 
tween two towers, which are either fixed or movable on 
rails according to the requirements of the work to be 
done. In addition to the main cable which bears the 
weight, and the rope which moves the skips along it, the 
cableway has the "falP** rope, which lowers the skip to the 
ground and raises it ; the dumping rope, which discharges 
it; and the "button"' rope, which pulls blocks off the 
horn of the skip truck at intervals as the latter moves, to 
support the " fall "' rope from the main cable. If the fall 
rope sagged its weight would, after a certain amount had 
been paid out, overcome the weight of the skip, and 
render it impossible to lower the skip to the filling point. 
So a series of fall-rope carriers are, at the commencement 
of a journey from one end of the cableway, riding on an 
arm in front of the skip carriage. The button-rope, 
passing under a pulley on the top of the skip carriage, is 
furnished at intervals with buttons of a size increasing 
towards the point at which the skip must be lowered. 
The holes in the carriers are similarly graduated so as to 
pass over any button but the one intended to arrest them. 
If we watched a skip travelling to the lowering point, we 

266 



TRANSPORTERS AND CONVEYERS 

should notice that the carriers were successively pulled off 
the skip carriage by the buttons, and strung along over 
the main cable and under the fall rope. 

When the skip has been lowered and filled the fall and 
hauling ropes are wound in ; the skip rises to the main 
cable, and begins to travel towards the dumping point. 
As long as the dumping rope is also hauled in at the 
same rate as the hauling rope it has no effect on the skip, 
but when its rate of travel is increased by moving it on to 
a larger winding drum, the skip is tipped or opened, as the 
case may be, without being arrested. 

The skip may be filled by hand or made self-filling where 
circumstances permit. 

The cableway is so economical in its working that it has 
greatly advanced the process of " open-pit '^ mining. 
Where ore lies near the surface it is desirable to remove 
the useless overlying matter (called " over-burden '*'') 
bodily, and to convey it right away, in preference to sink- 
ing shallow shafts with their attendant drawbacks of 
timbering and pumping. An inclined railway is handi- 
capped by the fact that it must occupy some of the sur- 
face to be uncovered, while liable to blockage by the 
debris of blasting operations. The suspended cableway 
neither obstructs anything nor can be obstructed, and is 
profitably employed when a ton of ore is laid bare for 
every four tons of over-burden removed. In the case of 
the Tilly Foster Mine, New York, where the removal of 
300,000 tons of rock exposed 600,000 tons of ore from an 
excavation 450 ft. long by 300 ft. wide, the saving effected 
by the cableway was enormous. Again, referring to the 
Chicago Drainage Canal, "the records show that while 

267 



MODERN MECHANISM 

labourers, sledging and filling into cars, averaged only 7 to 
8 J cubic yards per man per day, in filling into skips for 
the cable ways the labourers averaged from 12 to 17 
cubic yards per day.*" * The first cableway erected by the 
Lidgerwood Manufacturing Company for the prosecution 
of this engineering work handled 10,821 cubic yards a 
month, and proved so successful that nineteen similar 
plants were added. The cableways are suspended in this 
instance from two towers moving on parallel tracks on 
each bank of the canal, the towers being heavily ballasted 
on the outer sides of their bases to counteract the pull of 
the cable. From time to time, when a length had been 
cleared, the towers were moved forward by engines hauling 
on fixed anchors. 

The cableway is much used in the erection of masonry 
piers for bridges across rivers or valleys. Materials are 
conveyed by it rapidly and easily to points over the piers 
and lowered into position. Spans of over 1,500 feet have 
been exceeded for such purposes ; and if need be, spans of 
2,000 feet could be made to carry loads of twenty-five 
tons at a rate of twenty miles an hour. 

TELPHERAGE 

On most ropeways the skips or other conveyances are 
moved along the fixed ropes by trailing ropes working 
round drums driven by steam and controlled by brakes. 
But the employment of electricity has provided a system 
called telpherage^ in which the vehicle carries its own 
motor, fed by current from the rope on which it runs and 

* Cassier^s Magazine. 
268 



TRANSPORTERS AND CONVEYERS 

from auxiliary cables suspended a short distance above 
the main rope. " Telpher *" is a term derived from two 
Greek words signifying "a far carrier,*" since the motor 
so named will move any distance so long as a track 
and current is supplied to it. The carrier — for ore, coal, 
earth, barrels, sacks, timber, etc. — is suspended from the 
telpher by the usual hook-shaped support common to 
ropeways, to enable the load to pass the arms of the posts 
or trestles bearing the rope. The telpher usually has 
two motors, one placed on each side of a two-wheeled 
carriage so as to balance ; but sometimes only a single 
motor is employed. Just above the running cable is the 
" trolley "*" cable, from which the telpher picks up current 
through a hinged arm, after the manner of an electric 
tram. The carriers are controlled on steep grades by an 
electric braking device, which acts automatically, its effect 
varying with the speed at which the telpher runs. The 
carrier wheels, driven by the motors, adhere to the cable 
without slipping on grades as severe as three in ten, even 
when the surface has been moistened by rain. " In order 
to stop the telpher at any desired point, the trolley wire 
is divided into a number of sections, each controlled by a 
switch conveniently located. By opening a switch the 
current is cut off from the corresponding section, and the 
telpher will stop when it reaches this point. It is again 
started by closing the switch. At curves a section of the 
trolley wire (i,e. overhead cable for current) is connected 
to the source of current through a 'resistance' which 
lowers the voltage (pressure of the current) across the 
motors at this point. Thus, upon approaching a curve, 
the telpher automatically slows down, runs slowly around 

269 



MODERN MECHANISM 

the curve until it passes the resistance section, and is then 
automatically accelerated." * 

The telpher line is very useful (for transporting material 
considerable distances) in districts where it would not 
pay to construct a surface railway. On plantations 
it serves admirably to shift grain, fruits, tobacco, and 
other agricultural products. Then, again, a wide field is 
open to it for transmitting light articles, such as castings 
and parts of machinery, from one part of a foundry or 
manufactory to another, or from factory to vessel or 
truck for shipment. When coal has to be handled, the 
buckets are dumped automatically into bins. 

The telpher has much the same advantages over the 
steam-worked ropeway that an electric tram has over one 
moved by an endless cable. Its control is easier ; there is 
less friction ; and the speed is higher. And in common 
with ropeways it can claim independence of obstructions 
on the ground, and the ability to cross ravines with ease, 
which in the case of a railway would have to be bridged 
at great expense. 

COALING WARSHIPS AT SEA 

The war between Russia and Japan has brought promi- 
nently before the public the necessity of being able to 
keep a war vessel well supplied with coal : a task by no 
means easy when coaling stations are few and far between. 
The voyage of Admiral Rojdestvensky from Russia to 
Eastern waters was marked by occasions on which he 
entered neutral ports to draw supplies for his furnaces, 
though we know that colliers sailed with the warships to 

* Cassier''s Magazine. 
270 



\ 




m 



TRANSPORTERS AND CONVEYERS 

replenish their exhausted bunkers. In the old days of 
sailing vessels, their motive power, even if fitful, was in- 
exhaustible. But now that steam reigns supreme as the 
mover of the world's floating forts, the problem of " keep- 
ing the sea*" has become in one way very much more 
complicated. The radius of a vessel's action is limited by 
the capacity of her coal bunkers. Her captain in war 
time would be perpetually perplexed by the question of 
fuel, since movement is essential to naval success, while 
any misjudged fast steaming in pursuit of the enemy 
might render his ship an inert mass, incapable of motion, 
because the coal supplies had given out; or at least might 
compel him to return for supplies to the nearest port at 
a slow speed, losing valuable time. 

Just as a competitor in a long-distance race takes his 
nourishment without halting, so should a battleship be 
able to coal " on the wing." The task of transferring so 
many tons of the mineral from one ship's hold to that of 
another may seem easy enough to the inexperienced critic, 
and under favourable conditions it might not be attended 
by great difficulty. " Why," someone may say, " you have 
only to bring the collier alongside the warship, make her 
fast, and heave out the coals." In a perfect calm this 
might be feasible ; but let the slightest swell arise, and 
then how the sides of the two craft would bump together, 
with dire results to the weaker party ! Actual tests have 
shown this. 

At present "broadside" coaling is considered imprac- 
ticable, but the " from bow to stern " method has passed 
through its initial stages, and after many failures has 
reached a point of considerable efliciency. The difficulties 

271 



MODERN MECHANISM 

in transferring coal from a collier to a warship by which 
she is being towed will be apparent after very little reflec- 
tion. In the first place, there is the danger of the cable- 
way and its load dipping into the water, should the dis- 
tance between the two vessels be suddenly diminished, 
and the corresponding danger of the cable snapping 
should the pitching of the vessels increase the distance 
between the terminals of the cableway. These difficulties 
have made it impossible to merely shoot coals down a rope 
attached high up a mast of the collier and to the deck of 
the warship. What is evidently needed is some system 
which shall pay the cableway out or take it in auto- 
matically, so as to counterbalance any lengthening or 
shortening movement of the vessels. 

The Lidgerwood Manufacturing Company of New 
York, under the direction of Mr. Spencer Miller, have 
brought out a cableway specially adapted for marine work. 
The two vessels concerned are attached by a stout tow- 
line, the collier, of course, being in the rear. To carry 
the load, a single endless wire rope, f inch in diameter and 
2,000 feet long, is employed. It spans the distance between 
collier and ship twice, giving an inward track for full 
sacks, and an outward track for their return to the collier. 
On one vessel are two winches, the drums of which both 
turn in the same direction ; but while one drum is rigidly 
attached to its axle, the other slips under a stress greater 
than that needed to keep the rope sufficiently taut. Since 
the rope passes round a pulley at the other terminal, pres- 
sure placed at any point on the rope will tend to tighten 
both tracks, while a slackening at any point would simi- 
larly ease them. Supposing, then, that the ships suddenly 

272 



TRANSPORTERS AND CONVEYERS 

approach, there will be a certain amount of slack at once 
wound in ; if, on the other hand, the ships draw apart, 
the slipping drum will pay out rope sufficient to supply 
the need. The constant slipping of this drum sets up 
great heat, which is dissipated by currents of air. As 
the sacks of coal arrive on the man-of-war they are auto- 
matically detached from the cable, and fall down a chute 
into the hold. 

In the Temperley Miller Marine Cableway the load is 
carried on a main cable kept taut by a friction drum, 
and the hauling is done by an endless rope which has its 
own separate winches. In actual tests made at sea in 
rough weather sixty tons per hour have been trans- 
ferred, the vessels moving at from four to eight miles 
an hour. 



273 



CHAPTER XVIII 
AUTOMATIC WEIGHERS 

SCARCELY less important than the rapid transfer- 
ence of materials from one place to another is the 
quick and accurate weighing of the same. If a 
pneumatic grain elevator were used in conjunction with an 
ordinary set of scales such as are to be found at a corn 
dealer's there would be great delay, and the advantage of 
the elevator would largely be lost. Similarly a mechanical 
transporter of coal or ore should automatically register the 
tonnage of the mineral handled, to prevent undue waste 
of time. 

There are in existence many types of automatic weigh- 
ing machines, the general principles of which vary with 
the nature of the commodity to be weighed. Finely 
divided substances, such as grain, seeds, and sugar, are 
usually handled by hopper weighers. The grain, etc., is 
passed into a bin, from the bottom of which it flows 
into a large pan. When the proper unit of weight — a 
hundredweight or a ton — has nearly been attained, the 
flow is automatically throttled, so that it may be more 
exactly controlled, and as soon as the full amount has 
passed, the machine closes the hopper door and tips the 
pan over. The latter delivers its contents and returns to 
its original position, while the door above is simultane- 

274 



AUTOMATIC WEIGHERS 

ously opened for the operation to be repeated. A count- 
ing apparatus records the number of tips, so that a glance 
suffices to learn how much material has passed through 
the weigher, which may be locked up and allowed to look 
after itself for hours together. The " Chronos "' automatic 
grain scale is built in many sizes for charges of from 12 
to 3,300 lbs. of grain, and tips five times a minute. 
Avery's grain weigher takes up to 5J tons at a time. 

For materials of a lumpy nature, such as coal and 
ore, a different method is generally used. The hopper 
process would not be absolutely accurate, since the rate 
of feed cannot be exactly controlled when dust and large 
lumps weighing half a hundredweight or more are all 
jumbled together. Therefore instead of a pan which 
tips automatically as soon as it has received a fixed 
weight, we find a bin which, when a quantity roughly 
equal to the correct amount has been let in, sinks on to 
a weigher and has its contents registered by an automatic 
counter, which continuously adds up the total of a 
number of weighings and displays it on a dial. So that 
if there be 10 lbs. in excess of a ton at the first charge, 
the dial records "one ton," and keeps the 10 lbs. "up 
its sleeve ''■' against the next weighing, to which the excess 
is added. Avery\s mineral scale works, however, on much 
the same principle as that for grain already noticed, a 
special device being fitted to render the feed to the 
weighing pan as regular as possible. His weigher is used 
to feed mechanical furnace stokers. The quantity of coal 
used can thus be checked, while an automatic apparatus 
prevents the stoker bunkers from being overfilled. 

Continuous weighers register the amount carried by a 

275 



MODERN MECHANISM 

conveyer while in motion. The recording apparatus 
comes into action at fixed intervals, e.g. as soon as the 
conveyer has moved ten feet. The weighing mechanism 
is practically part of the conveyer, and takes the weight 
of ten feet. The steelyard is adjusted to exactly counter- 
balance the unloaded belt or skips of its length, but rises 
in proportion to the load. As soon as the conveyer has 
travelled ten feet the weight on the machine is imme- 
diately recorded, and the steelyard returns to zero. 

Intermittent zveighers record the weight of trucks or 
tubs passing over a railway or the cables of aerial track, 
the weigher forming part of the track and coming into 
play as soon as a load is fully on it. 

Some machines not only weigh material, but also stow 
and pack it. We find a good instance in TimewelPs 
sacking apparatus, which weighs corn, chaff, flour, oat- 
meal, rice, coffee, etc., transfers it to sacks, and sews the 
sack up automatically. The amount of time saved by 
such a machine must be very great. 

Note. — The author desires to express his indebtedness to Mr. 
George F. Zimmer's The Mechanical Handling of Material for some 
of the information contained in the above chapter ; and to the 
pubhshers, Messrs. A. Crosby Lockwood and Son, for permission 
to make use of the same. 



276 



CHAPTER XIX 
TRANSPORTER BRIDGES 

WHEN the writer was in Rouen, in 1898, two lofty 
iron towers were being constructed by the Seine : 
the one on the Quai du Havre, the other on the 
Quai Capelier, which borders the river on the side of 
the suburb St. Sever. 

The towers rose so far towards the sky that one had 
to throw one's head very far back to watch the workmen 
perched on the summit of the framework. What were 
the towers for? They seemed much too slender for the 
piers of an ordinary suspension bridge fit to carry heavy 
traffic. An inquiry produced the information that they 
were the first instalment of a " transbordeur,''' or trans- 
porter bridge. What is a bridge of this kind ? 

Well, it may best be described as a very lofty suspen- 
sion bridge, the girder of which is far above the water 
to allow the passage of masted ships. The suspended 
girder serves only as the run-way for a truck from which 
a travelling car hangs by stout steel ropes, the bottom 
of the car being but a few feet above the water. The 
truck is carried across from tower to tower, either by 
electric motors or by cables operated by steam-power. 

The transporter bridge in a primitive form has existed 
for some centuries, but its present design is of very 

277 



MODERN MECHANISM 

modern growth. With the increase of population has 
come an increased need for uninterrupted communication. 
Where rivers intervene they must be bridged, and we 
see a steady growth in the number of bridges in London, 
Paris, New York, and other large towns. 

Unfortunately a bridge, while joining land to land, 
separates water from water, and the dislocation of river 
traffic might not be compensated by the conveniences 
given to land traffic. The Forth, Brooklyn, Saltash, and 
other bridges have, therefore, been built of such a height 
as to leave sufficient head-room under the girders for the 
masts of the tallest ships. 

But what money they have cost ! And even the Tower 
Bridge, with its hinged bascules, or leaves, and bridges 
with centres revolving horizontally, devour large sums. 

Wanted, therefore, an efficient means of transport across 
a river which, though not costly to install, shall offer a 
good service and not impede river traffic. 

Thirty years ago Mr. Charles Smith, a Hartlepool 
engineer, designed a bridge of the transporter type for 
crossing the Tees at Middlesbrough. The bridge was 
not built, because people feared that the towers would not 
stand the buffets of the north-easterly gales. 

The idea promulgated by an Englishman was taken up 
by foreign engineers, who have erected bridges in Spain, 
Tunis, and France. So successful has this type of ferry- 
bridge proved, that it is now receiving recognition in the 
land of its birth, and at the present time transporter bridges 
are nearing completion in Wales and on the Mersey. 

The first " transbordeur **' built was that spanning the 
Nervion, a river flowing into the Bay of Biscay near 

278 




o 

> 

H 

H 
in 

< 



(TRANSPORTER BRIDGES 
ilbao, a Spanish town famous for the great deposits of 
on ore close by. A pair of towers rises on each bank to 
a height of 240 feet, and carry a suspended trussed girder 
530 feet long at a level of 150 feet above high- water 
mark. The car, giving accommodation for 200 passengers 
(it does not handle vehicles), hangs on the end of cables 
130 feet long, and is propelled by a steam-engine situated 
in one of the towers. Motion is controlled by the car- 
conductor, who is connected electrically with the engine- 
room. The lofty towers are supported on the landward 
side by stout steel ropes firmly anchored in the ground. 
These ropes are carried over the girder in the familiar 
curve of the suspension bridge, and attached to it at 
regular intervals by vertical steel braces. The cost of the 
bridge — £32,000 — compares favourably with that of any 
alternative non-traffic-blocking scheme, and the graceful, 
airy lines of the erection are by no means a blot on the 
landscape. 

The second " transbordeur "'' is that of Rouen, already 
referred to. Its span is rather less — 467 feet — but the 
suspension girder lies higher by 14 feet. The car is 
42 feet long by 36 broad, and weighs, with a full load, 
60 tons. A passage, which occupies 55 seconds, costs 
one penny first class, one halfpenny second class ; while 
a vehicle and horses pay 2Jd. to 4d., according to weight. 
The car is propelled by electricity, under the control of 
a man in the conning-tower perched on the roof. 

At Bizerta we find the third flying-ferry, which connects 
that town with Tunis, over a narrow channel between the 
Mediterranean Sea and two inland lakes. It replaced 
a steam-ferry which had done duty for about ten years. 

279 



MODERN MECHANISM 

The lakes being an anchorage for war vessels, it was 
imperative that any bridge over the straits should not 
interrupt free ingress and egress. This bridge has a span 
of 500 feet, and like that at Bilbao is worked by steam. 
Light as the structure appears, it has withstood a cyclone 
which did great damage in the neighboui'hood. It is 
reported that the French Government has decided to re- 
move the bridge to some other port, because its promi- 
nence would make it serve as a range-finder for an enemy'^s 
cannon in time of war. Its place would be taken either 
by a floating-bridge or by a submarine tunnel. 

The Nantes "transporter" over the Loire differs from 
its fellows in one respect, viz. that it is built on the canti- 
lever or balance principle. Instead of a single girder 
spanning the space between the towers, it has three 
girders, the two end ones being balanced on the towers 
and anchored at their landward extremities by vertical 
cables. The gap between them is bridged by a third 
girder of bow shape, which is stiff enough in itself 
to need no central support. The motive power is elec- 
tricity. 

All these structures will soon be eclipsed by two English 
bridges : the one over the Usk at Ne^vport, Monmouth- 
shire ; the other over the Mersey and Manchester Ship 
Canal at Runcorn "Gap,*" where the river narrows to 
1,200 feet. 

The first of these has towers 250 feet high and 685 feet 
apart. The girders will give 170 feet head-room above 
high-water mark. Five hundred passengers will be able 
to travel at one time on the car, besides a number of road 
vehicles, and as the passage is calculated to take only one 

280 



TRANSPORTER BRIDGES 

minute, the average velocity will exceed eight miles an 
hour. The cost has been set down at XGS^OOO, or about 
one-thirtieth that of a suspension bridge, and one-third 
that of a bascule bridge. The bridge is being built by 
the French engineers responsible for the Rouen trans- 
bordetir. 

Coming to the much more imposing Runcorn bridge we 
find even these figures exceeded. This span is 1,000 feet 
in length. The designer, Mr. John J. Webster, has 
already made a name with the Great Wheel which, at 
EarFs Court, London, has given many thousands of 
pleasure-seekers an aerial trip above the roofs of the 
metropolis. The following account by Mr. W. G. Archer 
in the Magazine of Commerce describes this mammoth of 
its kind in some detail : — 

"The two main towers carrying the cables and the 
stiffening girders are built, one on the south side of 
the Ship Canal, and the other on the foreshore on the 
north bank of the river; and the approaches consist of 
new roadways, nearly flat, built between stone and con- 
crete retaining walls as far as the water's edge, and a 
corrugated steel flooring, upon which are laid the timber 
blocks on concrete, resting on steel elliptical girders and 
cast-iron columns. The roadway in front of the towers is 
widened out to 70 feet, for marshalling the traffic, and for 
providing space for waiting-rooms, etc. The towers are 
constructed wholly of steel, rise 190 feet above high-water 
level, and are bolted firmly to the cast-iron cylinders 
below. Each tower consists of four legs, spaced 30 feet 
apart at the base, and each pair of towers are 70 feet 
apart, and are braced together with strong horizontal and 

281 



MODERN MECHANISM 

diagonal frames. Each of the two main cables consists of 
19 steel ropes bound together, each rope being built up of 
127 wires 0*16 inches in diameter. The ends of the cable 
backstays are anchored into the solid rock on each side of 
the river, about 30 feet from the rock surface. The weight 
of the main cables is about 243 tons, and from them are 
suspended two longitudinal stiffening girders, 18 feet deep,^ 
and placed 35 feet apart horizontally, the underside of 
the girders being 82 feet above the level of high water. 
. . . Upon the lower flange of the stiffening girders are fixed 
the rails upon which runs the traveller, from which is 
suspended the car. The traveller is 77 feet long, and 
is carried by sixteen wheels on each rail. It is propelled 
by two electric motors of about 35 horse-power each. . . . 
The car will be capable of holding at one time four large 
wagons and 300 passengers, the latter being protected from 
the weather by a glazed shelter. ... The time occupied 
by the car in crossing will be 2^ minutes, so, allowing for 
the time spent in loading and unloading, it will be capable 
of making nine or ten trips per hour. This bridge, when 
completed, will have the largest span of any bridge in the 
United Kingdom designed for carrying road traffic, the 
clear space over the Mersey and Ship Canal being 1,000 
feet. . . . The total cost of the structure, including Par- 
liamentary expenses, will be about £150,000."'' 

Mr. Archer adds that, in spite of prophecies of disas- 
trous collisions between transporter cars and passing ships, 
there has up to date been no accident of any kind. To 
those in search of a new sensation the experience of 
skimming swiftly a few feet above the water may be 
recommended. 

282 



CHAPTER XX 
BOAT AND SHIP RAISING LIFTS 

IN modern locomotion, whether by land or water, it 
becomes increasingly necessary to keep the way un- 
obstructed where traffic is confined to the narrow 
limits of a pair of rails, a road, or a canal channel. We 
widen our roads ; we double and quadruple our rails. 
Canals are, as a rule, not alterable except at immense 
cost ; and if, in the first instance, they were not built 
broad enough for the work that they are afterwards called 
upon to do, much of their business must pass to rival 
methods of transportation. Modern canals, such as the 
Manchester and Kiel canals, were given generous pro- 
portions to start with, as their purpose was to pass ocean- 
going ships, and for many years it will not be necessary to 
enlarge them. The Suez Canal has been widened in 
recent years, by means of dredgers, which easily scoop 
out the sandy soil through which it runs and deposit it on 
the banks. But the Corinth Canal, cut through solid 
rock, cannot be thus economically expanded, and as a 
result it has proved a commercial failure. 

Even if a canal be of full capacity in its channel-way 
there are points at which its traffic is throttled. How- 
ever gently the country it traverses may slope, there must 
occur at intervals the necessity of making a lock for 

2S3 



MODERN MECHANISM 

transferring vessels from one level to the other. Some- 
times the ascent or descent is effected by a series of stepsj 
or flight of locks, on account of the magnitude of the 
fall ; and in such cases the loss of time becomes a serious 
addition to the cost of transport. 

In several instances engineers have got over the diffi- 
culty by ingenious hydi^aulic lifts, which in a few minutes 
pass a boat through a perpendicular distance of many 
feet. At Anderton, where the Trent and Mersey Canal 
meets the Weaver Navigation, barges up to 100 tons 
displacement are raised fifty feet. Two troughs, each 
weighing with their contents 240 tons, are carried by two 
cast-iron rams placed under their centres, the cylinders of 
which are connected by piping. When both troughs are 
full the pressure on the rams is equal, and no movement 
results ; but if six inches of water be transferred from the 
one to the other, the heavier at once forces up the lighter. 
At Fontinettes, on the Neufosse Canal, in France, at La 
Louviere, in Belgium, and at Peterborough, in Canada, 
similar installations are found ; the last handling vessels 
of 400 tons through a rise of 65 feet. 

Fine engineering feats as these are, they do not equal 
the canal-lift on the Dortmund-Ems Canal, which puts 
Dortmund in direct water communication with the Elbe, 
and opens the coal and iron deposits of the Rhine and 
Upper Silesia to the busy manufacturing district lying 
between these two localities. About ten miles from its 
eastern extremity the main reach of the canal forks off 
at Heinrichenburg, from the northward branch running 
to Dortmund, its level being on the average some 49 feet 
lower than the branch. For the transference of boats an 

2S4 



BOAT AND SHIP RAISING LIFTS 

"up" and "down" line of four locks each would have 
been needed ; and apart from the inevitable two hours' 
delay for locking, this method would have entailed the loss 
of a great quantity of precious water. 

Mr. R. Gerdau, a prominent engineer of Dusseldorf- 
Grafenburg, therefore suggested an hydraulic lift, which 
should accommodate boats of 700 tons, and pass them 
from the one level to the other in five minutes. 

This scheme was approved, and has recently been com- 
pleted. The principle of the lift is as follows : — A trough, 
233 feet long, rests on five vertical supports, themselves 
carried by as many hollow cylindrical floats moving up and 
down in deep wells full of water. The buoyancy of the five 
floats is just equal to the combined weight of the trough 
and its load, so that a comparatively small force causes 
the latter to rise or fall, as required. By letting off* 
water from the trough — which is, of course, furnished 
with doors to seal its ends — it would be made to ascend ; 
while the addition of a few tons would cause a descent. 
But this would mean waste of water ; and, were the 
trough not otherwise governed, a serious accident might 
happen if a float sprang a leak. Motion is therefore 
imparted to the trough by four huge vertical screws, 
resting on solid masonry piers, and turning in large collars 
attached to the trough near its corners. All the screws 
work in unison through gearing, as they are sufficiently 
stout to bear the whole load ; even were the floats 
removed, no tilting or sudden fall is possible. The screws 
are driven by an electric motor of 150 horse-power, perched 
on the girders joining the tops of four steel towers wliich 
act as guides for the trough to move in, while tliey 

285 



MODERN MECHANISM 

absorb all wind-pressure. Under normal circumstances the 
trough rises or sinks at a speed of four inches per second. 
The total mass in motion — trough, water, boat, and 
floats — is 3,100 tons. Our ideas of a float do not ordin- 
arily rise above the small cork which we take with us when 
we go a-fishing, or at the most above the buoy which bobs 
up and down to mark a fair- way. These five " floats '^ — 
so called — belong to a very much larger class of creations. 
Each is 30 feet across inside and 46|^ feet high. Their 
wells, 138 feet deep, are lined with concrete nearly a yard 
thick, to ensure absolute water-tightness, inside the stout 
iron casings, which rise 82 feet above the bottom. 

In view of the immense weight which they have to 
carry, the piers under the screw-spindles are extremely 
solid. At its base each measures 14 feet by 12 feet 
4 inches, and tapers upwards for 36 feet till these dimen- 
sions have contracted to 8 feet 10 inches by 6 feet 
6 inches. The spindles, 80 feet long and 11 inches in 
diameter, must be four of the largest screws in existence. 
To make it absolutely certain that they contained no 
flaws, a 4-inch central hole was drilled through them 
longitudinally — another considerable workshop feat. If 
shafts of such length were left unsupported when the 
trough was at its highest point, there would be danger 
of their bending and breaking ; and they are, therefore, 
provided with four sliding collars each, connected each to 
its fellow by a rod. When the trough has risen a fifth of 
its travel the first rod lifts the first collar, which moves 
in the guide-pillai^. This in turn raises the second ; the 
second the third ; and so on. So that by the time the 
trough is fully raised each spindle is kept in line by four 
intermediate supports. 

286 



BOAT AND SHIP RAISING LIFTS 

The trough, 233 feet long by 34^ feet wide, will receive 
a vessel 223 feet long betw^een perpendiculars. It has a 
rectangular section, and is built up of stout plates laid on 
strong cross-girders, all carried by a single huge longi- 
tudinal girder resting on the float columns. 

One of the most difficult problems inseparable from 
a structure of this kind is the provision of a water-tight 
joint between the trough and the upper and lower reaches 
of the canal. At each end of the trough is a sliding 
door faced on its outer edges with indiarubber, which the 
pressure of the water inside holds tightly against flanges 
when pressure on the outside is removed. The termina- 
tion of the canal reaches have similar doors ; but as it 
would be impossible to arrange things so accurately that 
the two sets of flanges should be water-tight, a wedge, 
shaped like a big U? and faced on both sides with rubber, 
is interposed. ITie wedge at the lower reach gate is 
thickest at the bottom ; the upper wedge the reverse ; so 
that the trough in both cases jams it tight as it comes 
to rest. The wedges can be raised or lowered in accord- 
ance with the fluctuations of the canals. 

After thus briefly outlining the main constructional 
features of the lift, let us watch a boat pass through from 
the lower to the upper level. It is a steamer of 600 tons 
burden, quite a formidable craft to meet so far inland ; 
while some distance away it blows a warning whistle, and 
the motor-man at his post moves a lever which sets the 
screw in motion. The trough sinks until it has reached 
the proper level, when the current is automatically broken, 
and it sinks no further. Its travel is thus controllable to 
within /V of an inch. 

287 



MODERN MECHANISM 

An interlocking arrangement makes it impossible to 
open the trough or reach gates until the trough has 
settled or risen to the level of the water outside. On the 
other hand, the motor driving the lifting screws cannot 
be started until the gates have been closed, so that an 
accidental flooding of the countryside is amply provided 
against. 

A man now turns the crank of a winch on the canal 
bank and unlocks the canal gate. A second twist couples 
the gates between the canal and the trough together and 
starts the lifting-motors overhead, which raise the twenty- 
eight ton mass twenty-three feet clear of the water-level. 
The boat enters ; the doors are lowered and uncoupled ; 
the reach gate is locked. The spindle-motor now starts ; 
up " she *" goes, and the process of coupling and raising 
gates is repeated before she is released into the upper 
reach. From start to finish the transfer occupies about 
five minutes. 

If a boat is not self-propelled, electric capstans help it 
to enter and leave the trough. Such a vessel could not 
be passed through in less than twenty minutes. 

Putting on one side the ship dry docks, which can 
raise a 15,000 ton vessel clear of the sea, the Dortmund 
hydraulic lift is the largest lift in the world, and the 
novelty of its design will, it is hoped, render the above 
account acceptable to the reader. Before leaving the 
subject another canal lift may be noticed — that on the 
Grand Junction Canal at Foxton, Leicestershire — which 
has replaced a system of ten locks, to raise barges through 
a height of 75 feet. 

The new method is the invention of Messrs. G. and 

288 _ 







-9 *-' 



2 o 

X a, 
o o 












BOAT AND SHIP RAISING LIFTS 

C. B. J. Thomas. In principle it consists of an inclined 
railway, having eight rails, four for the '' up **" and as 
many for the " down ^ traffic. On each set of four rails 
runs a tank mounted on eight wheels, which is connected 
with a similar tank on the other set by 7-inch steel-wire 
ropes passing round winding drums at the top of the 
incline. The tanks are thus balanced. At the foot of 
the incline a barge which has to ascend is floated into 
whichever tank may be ready to receive it, and the end 
gate is closed. An engine is then started, and the laden 
tank slides ^'broadside on" up the 300-foot slope. The 
summit being reached, the tank gates are brought into 
register with those of the upper reach, and as soon as 
they have been opened the boat floats out into the upper 
canal. Boats of 70 tons can be thus transferred in about 
twelve minutes, at a cost of but a few pence each. On a 
busy day 6,000 tons are handled. 

A SHIP-RAISING LIFT 

The writer has treated one form of lift for raising 
ships out of the water — the floating dry dock — else- 
where,* so his remarks in this place will be confined to 
mechanism which, having its foundations on Mother 
Earth, heaves mighty vessels out of their proper element 
by the force of hydraulic pressure. Looking round for 
a good example of an hydraulic ship-lift, we select tliat 
of the Union Ironworks, San Francisco. 

Some years ago the works were moved from the heart 
of the city to the edge of Mission Bay, with the object 
of carrying on a large business in marine engineering and 

* The Romancu of Modern Engineering ^ pp. 383 toll. 
T 289 



MODERN MECHANISM 

shipbuilding. For such a purpose a dry dock, which in 
a short time will lift a vessel clear of the water for clean- 
ing or repairs, is of great importance to both owners and I . 
workmen. By the courtesy of the proprietors of Cassier's 
Magazine we are allowed to append the following account 
of this interesting lift. 

The site available for a dock at the Union Ironworks 
was a mud-flat. The depth of soft mud being from 80 
to 90 feet, would render the working of a graving dock 
{i.e, one dug out of the ground and pumped dry when 
the entrance doors have been closed) very disagreeable; 
as such docks, where much mud is carried in with the 
water, require a Jong time to be cleaned and to dry out. 
Plans were therefore prepared by Mr. George W. Dickie 
for an hydraulic dock, including an automatic control, 
which the designer felt confident would meet all the 
requirements of the situation, and which, after careful 
consideration, the Union Ironworks decided to build. 
Work was begun in January, 1886, and the dock was 
opened for business on June 15th, 1887 — a very fine 
record. 

This dock consists of a platform built of cross and 
longitudinal steel girders, 62 feet wide and 440 feet long, 
having keel blocks and sliding bilge blocks upon which 
the ship to be lifted rests. The lifting power is generated 
by a set of four steam-driven, single-acting horizontal 
plunger pumps, the diameter of the plungers being 
3| inches and the stroke 36 inches. Forty strokes per 
minute is the regular speed. 

There is a weighted accumulator, or regulator, con- 
nected with the pumps, the throttle valve of the engines 

290 



BOAT AND SHIP RAISING LIFTS 

being controlled by the accumulator.* The load on the 
accumulator consists of a number of flat discs of metal, 
the first one about 14 inches thick and the others about 
4 inches thick, the diameter being about 4 feet. The first 
disc gives a pressure of 300 lbs. per square inch. This is 
sufficient to lift the dock platform without a ship, and 
is always kept on. 

In lifting a ship, as she comes out of the water and 
gets heavier on the platform, additional discs are taken 
on by the accumulator ram as required. The discs are 
suspended by pins on the side catching into links of a 
chain. The engineer, to take on another disc, unhooks 
the throttle from the accumulator rod, runs the engine 
a little above the normal speed, the accumulator rises 
and takes the weight of the disc to be added ; the link 
carrying that disc is thus relieved and is withdi^awn. The 
engineer again hooks the accumulator rod to the engine 
throttle, and the whole is self-acting again until another 
weight is required. When all the discs are on the ram 
the full pressure of 1,100 lbs. per square inch is reached, 
which enables a ship of 4,000 tons weight to be raised. 

There are eighteen hydraulic rams on each side of the 
dock. These rams are each 30 inches in diameter and 
have a stroke of 16 feet ; and as the platform rises 2 feet 
for 1 foot movement of the rams, the total vertical move- 
ment of the platform is 32 feet. When lowered to the 
lowest limit there are 22 feet of water over the keel 
blocks at high tide. 

The foundations consist of seventy-two cylinders of 

* For explanation of the ** accumulator," see the chapter on 
Hydraulic Tools (p. 81). 

291 



MODERN MECHANISM 

iron, which extend from the top girders to several feet 
below the mud line. These cylinders are driven full of 
piles, no pile being shorter than 90 feet. The cylinders 
are to protect the piles from the teredo (the timber- 
boring worm), which is very destructive in San Francisco 
Harbour. A heavy cast-iron cap completes each of the 
foundation piers, and two heavy steel girders extend the 
full length of the dock on each side, resting on the 
foundation piers and uniting them all longitudinally. 
The hydraulic cylinders are carried by large castings 
resting on the girders, each having a central opening to 
receive a cylinder, which passes down between the piers. 
There are thirty-six foundation piers, and eighteen 
hydraulic cylinders on each side of the dock. 

On the top of each hydraulic ram is a heavy sheave 
or pulley, 6 feet in diameter, over which pass eight steel 
cables, 2 inches in diameter, making in all 288 cables. 
One end of each cable is anchored in the bed-plates 
supporting the hydraulic cylinders, while the other end 
is secured to the side girders of the platform. Each of 
the cables has been tested with a load of 80 tons, so that 
the total test load for the ropes has been 21,000 tons. 

In lifting a ship the load is never evenly distributed 
on the platform. There is, in fact, often more than one 
ship on the platform at once. Some rams, therefore, may 
have a full load and others much less. Under these con- 
ditions, to keep the platform a true plane, irrespective 
of the irregular distribution of the load, Mr. Dickie 
designed a special valve gear to make the action of the 
dock perfectly automatic. Down each side of the dock 
a shaft is carried, operated by a special engine in the 

292 



I 



BOAT AND SHIP RAISING LIFTS 

power house. At each hydraulic ram this shaft carries 
a worm, gearing with a worm-wheel on a vertical screw 
extending the full height reached by the stroke of the 
ram. This screw works in a nut on the end of a lever, 
the other end of which is attached to the ram. Between 
the two points of support a rod, working the valves — 
also carried by the ram — engages with the lever. If at 
a given moment the screw-end is raised, say, six inches, 
the lever opens the valve. As the ram rises, the lever, 
having its other end similarly lifted by the rise, gradually 
assumes a horizontal position, and the valve closes. 

To lift the dock the engine working the valve shaft is 
started, and with it the operating screws. These, through 
the levers, open the inlet valves. The rams now begin 
to move up : if any one has a light load it will move 
up ahead of the other, but in doing so it lifts the other 
end of the lever and closes the valve. In fact, the screws 
are continually opening the valves, while the motion of 
the rams is continually closing them, so that no ram can 
move ahead of its screw, and the speed of the screw 
determines the rate of movement of the lifting platform. 

To lower the dock, the engine operating the valve 
shaft is reversed, and the screws and levers then control 
the outlet valves as they controlled the inlet valves in 
raising. When the platform has reached the limit of 
its movement, a line of locks on top of the founda- 
tion girders, thirty-six on each side, are pushed under the 
platform by an hydraulic cylinder, and the platform is 
lowered on to them, where it rests until the work is done 
on the ship ; then the platform is again lifted, the locks 
are drawn back, and the platform with its load is lowered 

293 



MODERN MECHANISM 

until the ship floats out. All the operations are auto- 
matic. 

Since the dock was opened well over a thousand ships 
have been lifted in it without any accident whatever; 
the total register tonnage approaching SjOOO^OOO. The 
great favour in which the dock is held by shipowners and 
captains is partly due to the fact already mentioned, 
that the ship is lifted above the level of tide water, where 
the air can circulate freely under the bottom, thus quickly 
taking up all the moisture, and where the workmen can 
carry on operations with greater comfort. 

When extensive repairs have to be undertaken on iron 
or steel vessels, the fact that this dock forms part of an 
extensive shipbuilding plant, and is located right in the 
yard, enables such repairs to be executed with despatch 
and economy. Several large steamships have had the 
under-water portions of their hulls practically rebuilt in 
this dock. The steamship Columbia^ of the Oregon Line, 
had practically a new bottom, including the whole of the 
keel, completed in twenty-six days. This is possible, 
because every facility is alongside the dock and the bottom 
of the vessel is on a level with the yard. 

This being the only hydraulic dock controlled auto- 
matically (in 1897), it has attracted a large amount 
of attention from engineering experts in this class of work. 
English, French, German, and Russian engineers have 
visited the Union Iron Works to study its working, and 
their reports have done much to bring the facilities 
offered to shipping for repairs by the Union Iron Works 
to the notice of shipowners all the world over. 



294 



CHAPTER XXI 
A SELF-MOVING STAIRCASE 

AT the American Exhibition, held in the Crystal 
Palace in 1902, there was shown a staircase which, 
on payment of a penny, transported any sufficiently 
daring person from the ground-floor to the gallery above. 
All that the experimenters had to do was to step boldly on, 
take hold of the balustrade, which moved at an equal pace 
with the stairs, and step off when the upper level was 
reached. 

The "escalator'''' (Latin scalae = Aight of stairs) hails 
from the United States, where it is proving a serious 
rival to the elevator. In principle, it is a continuously 
working lift, the slow travel of which is more than com- 
pensated by the fact that it is always available. The 
ordinary elevator is very useful in a large business or 
commercial house, where it saves the legs of people who, 
if they had to tramp up flight after flight of stairs, would 
probably not spend so much money as they would be 
ready to part with if their vertical travel from one floor 
to another was entirely free of effort. But the ordinary 
lift is, like a railway, intermittent. We all know what 
it means to stand at the grille and watch the cage slide 
downwards on its journey of, perhaps, four floors, when 
we want to go to a floor higher up. Rather than face the 
delay we use our legs. 

Theoretically, therefore, a large emporium should 

295 



MODERN MECHANISM 

contain at least two lifts. If the number be further 
increased, the would-be passenger will have a still better 
chance of getting off at once. Thus at the station of the 
Central London Railway we have to wait but a very few 
seconds before a grille is thrown back and an attendant 
invites us to " Hurry up there, please ! '' 

Yet there is delay while the cage is being filled. The 
actual journey occupies but a small fraction of the time 
which elapses between the moment when the first pas- 
senger enters the lift at the one end of the trip and 
the moment when the last person leaves it at the other 
end. In a building where the lift stops every fifteen 
feet or so to take people on or put them off, the waste 
of time is still more accentuated. 

The escalator is always ready. You step on and are 
transported one stage. A second staircase takes you 
on at once if you desire it. There is no delay. Further- 
more, the room occupied by a single escalator is much 
less than that occupied by the number of lifts required to 
give anything like an equally efficient service. 

In large American stores, then, it is coming into 
favour, and also on the Manhattan Elevated Railway 
of New York. When once the little nervousness accom- 
panying the first use has worn off, it eclipses the lift. 
A writer in Cassier's Magazine says : " In one large retail 
store during the holiday season more than 6,000 persons 
per hour have been carried upon the escalator for five 
hours of the day, and the aggregate for an entire day 
is believed to be 50,000. In the same store on an 
ordinary day the passengers alighting at the second floor 
from the eight large lifts, which run from the basement 
to the fifth floor, were counted, likewise the number 

296 



A SELF-MOVING STAIRCASE 

at the escalator. This latter was found to be 859 per 
cent, of the number delivered by the eight lifts. In 
another establishment, in a very busy hour, the number 
taken from the first floor by the escalator was four times 
the number taken from the first floor by the fourteen 
lifts, which were running at their maximum capacity. To 
the merchant this spells opportunity for business. 

" The experience at the Twenty- third Street and Sixth 
Avenue station of the Manhattan Elevated Railway in 
New York, during a recent shut-down of the escalator, 
which has been in service for some time, is interesting 
as showing the attitude of the public, of which many 
millions have been carried by the installation during the 
several years of its operation. The daily traffic receipts 
of this station for a period beginning several weeks before 
the shut-down and extending as many after, for the years 
1903 and 1902, and receipts of the adjacent stations for 
the same period were carefully plotted . . . and the loss 
area during the period of shut-down was determined. 
The loss area was found to embrace 64,645 fares. It was, 
furthermore, daily a matter of observation that numbers of 
people, finding that the escalator was not running, refused 
to climb the stairs, and turned away from the station. 

" In the case of a great store, the escalator may be con- 
structed as one continuous machine, with landings at each 
floor, and so arranged that steps which carry passengers 
up may perform a like service in carrying others down ; or 
separate machines may be installed in various locations 
affording the best opportunity for displaying merchandise 
to the customer who may be proceeding from the lower 
to the upper floor. In the case of a six-storey building so 
equipped with escalator service in both directions, or in all 

297 



MODERN MECHANISM 

ten escalator flights, it is obvious that the facilities are equal 
to an impossible number of elevators ; and as facility of 
access has a direct bearing upon opportunities for business, 
it may well be argued that the relative value, measured 
by rent, of the main and upper floors is greatly changed/' 

Each step in a staircase has two parts — the " tread '*' or 
horizontal board on which the foot is placed, and the 
vertical " riser "''' which acts both as a support to the tread 
above and also prevents the foot from slipping under the 
tread. In the escalator each tread is attached rigidly to 
its riser, and the two together form an independent unit. 

For the convenience of passengers in stepping on or 
off at the upper and lower landings, the treads in these 
places are all in the same horizontal plane. As they 
approach the incline the risers gradually appear, and the 
treads separate vertically. At the top of the incline the 
process is gradually reversed, the risers disappearing until 
the treads once more form a horizontal belt. 

The means of effecting this change is most ingenious. 
Each tread and its riser is carried on a couple of vertical 
triangular brackets, one at each side of the staircase. 
The base of the bracket is uppermost, to engage with the 
tread, and its apex has a hole through which passes a 
transverse bar, which in its central part forms a pin in 
the link-chain by which power is transmitted to the 
escalator. Naturally, the step would tip over. This is 
prevented by a yoke attached to each end of the bar, at 
right angles to it and parallel to the tread. The yoke 
has at each extremity a small wheel running on its own rail 
— there being two rails for each side of the staircase. 

Since step, brackets, bar, and yoke are all rigidly 
joined together, the step is unable to leave the horizontal, 

298 



A SELF-MOVING STAIRCASE 

but its relation to the steps above and below is deter- 
mined by the arrangement of the rails on which the yoke 
wheels run. When these are in the same plane, all the 
yokes, and consequently the treads, will also be in the 
same plane. But at the incline, where the inner rail 
gradually sinks lower than its fellow, the front wheel 
of one tread is lower than the front wheel of the next, 
and the risers appear. It may be added that, owing to 
the double track at each side of the staircase, the back 
wheel of one tread does not interfere with the front wheel 
of that below ; and that on the level they come abreast 
without jostling, as the yoke is bent. 

The chain, of which the step-bars form pins, travels 
under the centre of the staircase. It is made up of links 
eighteen inches long, having, in addition to the bars, a 
number of steel cross-pins 1^ inches in diameter, their 
axes three inches apart, so that the chain as a whole has a 
three-inch " pitch."'' The hubs of the links are bushed with 
bronze, and have a graphite " inlay j**** which makes them 
self-lubricating. Every joint is turned to within fTj^o inch 
of absolute accuracy. 

The tracks are of steel and hardwood, insulated from 
the ironwork which supports them by sheets of rubber. 
The wheels are so constructed as to be practically noise- 
less, so that as a whole the escalator works very quietly. 

"It has been observed," says the authority already 
quoted, " that beginners take pains to step upon a single 
tread, and that after a little experience no attention 
whatever is given to the footing, owing to the facility of 
adapting oneself to the situation. The upper landing is 
somewhat longer, thereby affording an interval for step- 
ping off* at either side of sufficient duration to meet the 

299 



MODERN MECHANISM 

requirements of the aged and infirm. The sole function 
of the travelling landing is to provide a time interval to 
meet the requirements of the slowest-acting passenger, 
and not of the alert. The terminal of the exit landing,' 
be it top or bottom (for the escalator operates equally 
well for either ascent or descent), is a barrier, called the 
shunt, of which the lower member travels horizontally in 
a plane oblique to the direction of movement of the 
steps, and at a speed proportionately greater, thereby 
imparting a right -angle resultant to the person or 
obstacle on the step which may come in contact with 
the shunt. By reason of this resultant motion, the 
person or obstacle is gently pushed off the end of the step 
upon the floor, without shock or injury in the slightest 
degree. The motion of the escalator is so smooth and 
constant that it does not interpose the least obstacle 
to the free movement of the passenger, who may walk 
in either direction or assume any attitude to the same 
degree as upon a stationary staircase." 

At Cleveland, U.S.A., there has been erected a rolling 
roadway, consisting of an inclined endless belt and plat- 
form made of planks eight feet long, placed transversely 
across the roadway. The timbers are fastened together 
in trucks of two planks each, adjoining trucks being 
joined by heavy links to form a moving roadway, which 
runs on 4,000 small wheels. At each end the road- 
way, which is continuous, passes round enormous rollers. 
Its total length is 420 feet, and the rise 65 feet. Four 
electric motors placed at regular intervals along its length, 
and all controlled by one man at the head of the incline, 
drive it at three miles an hour. It can accommodate six 
wagons at a time. 

300 



CHAPTER XXII 
PNEUMATIC MAIL TUBES 

YOU put your money on the counter. The shop 
assistant makes out a bill ; and you wonder what he 
will do with it next. These large stores know 
nothing of an open till. Yet there are no cashiers' 
desks visible; nor any overhead wires to whisk a carrier 
off to some corner where a young lady, enthroned in a box, 
controls all the pecuniary affairs of that department. 

While you are wondering the assistant has wrapped the 
coin in the bill and put the two into a dumb-bell-shaped 
carrier, which he drops into a hole. A few seconds later, 
flop ! and the carrier has returned into a basket under 
another opening. There is something so mysterious 
about the operation that you ask questions, and it is 
explained to you that there are pneumatic tubes running 
from every counter in the building to a central pay-desk 
on the first or second floor ; and that an engine somewhere 
in the basement is hard at work all day compressing air to 
shoot the carriers through their tubes. 

Certainly a great improvement on those croquet-ball 
receptacles which progressed with a deliberation madden- 
ing to anyone in a hurry along a wooden suspended rail- 
way ! Now, imagine tubes of this sort, only of nuich 
larger diameter, in some cases, passing for miles under the 

301 



MODERN MECHANISM 

streets and houses, and you will have an idea of what 
the Pneumatic Mail Despatch means : the cash and bill 
being replaced by letters, telegrams, and possibly small 
parcels. 

" Swift as the wind *" is a phrase often in our mouths, 
when we wish to emphasise the celerity of an individual, 
an animal, or a machine in getting from one spot of the 
earth'^s surface to another. Mercury, the messenger of 
uncertain-tempered Jove, was pictured with wings on his 
feet to convey, symbolically, the same notion of speed. 
The modern human messenger is so poor a counterpart of 
the god, and his feet are so far from being winged, that 
for certain purposes we have fallen back on elemental air- 
currents, not unrestrained like the breezes, but confined to 
the narrow and certain paths of the metal tube. 

The pneumatic despatch, which at the present day is by 
no means universal, has been tried in various forms for 
several decades. Its first public installation dates from 
1853, when a tube three inches in diameter and 220 yards 
long was laid in London to connect the International Tele- 
graph Company with the Stock Exchange. A vacuum was 
created artificially in front of the carrier, which the ordi- 
nary pressure of the atmosphere forced through the tube. 
Soon after this the post-ofiice authorities took the matter 
up, as the pneumatic system promised to be useful for the 
transmission of letters; but refused to face the initial 
expense of laying the tube lines. 

When, in 1858, Mr. C. F. Varley introduced the high- 
pressure method, pneumatic despatch received an impetus 
comparable to that given to the steam-engine by the 
employment of high-pressure steam. It was now possible 

302 



PNEUMATIC MAIL TUBES 

to use a double line of tubes economically, the air com- 
pressed for sending the carriers through the one line 
being pumped out of a chamber which sucked them back 
through the other. Tubes for postal work were soon 
installed in many large towns in Great Britain, Europe, 
and the United States; including the thirty-inch pneumatic 
railway between the North- Western District post office 
in Eversholt Street and Euston Station, which for some 
months of 1863 transported the mails between these two 
points. The air was exhausted in front of the carriage by 
a large fan. Encouraged by its success, the company 
built a much larger tube, nearly 4| feet in diameter, 
to connect Euston Station with the General Post Office. 
This carried fourteen tons of post-office matter from one 
end to the other in a quarter of an hour. There was an 
intermediate station in Holborn, where the engines for 
exhausting had been installed. But owing to the difficulty 
^f preventing air leakage round the carriages the under- 
taking proved a commercial failure, and for years the very 
route of this pneumatic railway could not be found ; so 
quickly are " failures " forgotten ! 

The more useful small tube grew most vigorously in 
America and France. In, or about, the year 1875 the 
Western Union Telegraph Company laid tubes in New 
York to despatch telegrams from one part of the city to 
the other, because they found it quicker to send them this 
way than over the wires. Eighteen years later fifteen 
miles of tubes were installed in Chicago to connect the 
main offices of the same company with the newspaper 
offices in the town, and with various important public 
buildings. Messages which formerly took an hour or 

303 



MODERN MECHANISM 

more in delivery are now flipped from end to end in a few 
seconds. 

The Philadelphia people meanwhile had been busy with 
a double line of six-inch tubes, 3,000 feet long, laid by 
Mr. B. C. Batcheller between the Bourse and the General 
Post Office, for the carriage of mails. The first thing to 
pass through was a Bible wrapped in the "Stars and 
Stripes."" A 30 horse-power engine is kept busy ex- 
hausting and compressing the air needed for the service, 
which amounts to about 800 cubic feet per minute. 
Philadelphia can also boast an eight-inch service, con- 
necting the General Post Office with the Union Railway 
Station, a mile away. One and a half minutes suflSce for 
the transit of the large carriers packed tightly with letters 
and circulars, nearly half a million of which are handled 
by these tubes daily. 

New York is equally well served. Tubes run from the 
General Post Office to the Produce Exchange, to Brooklyn, 
and to the Grand Central Station. The last is 3| miles 
distant ; but seven minutes only are needed for a tube 
journey which formerly occupied the mail vans for nearly 
three-quarters of an hour. 

Paris is the city of the petit bleu^ so important an insti- 
tution in the gay capital. Here a network of tubes 
connects every post office in the urban area with a central 
bureau, acting the part of a telephone exchange. If you 
want to send an express message to a friend anywhere in 
Paris, you buy a petit bleu^ i,e, a very thin letter-card 
not exceeding ^ oz. in weight, at the nearest post office, 
and post it in a special box. It whirls away to the ex- 
change, and is delivered from there if its destination be 

304 



PNEUMATIC MAIL TUBES 

close at hand ; otherwise it makes a second journey to the 
office most conveniently situated for delivery. Everybody 
uses the vote pneumatique of Paris, so much cheaper than, 
and quite as expeditious as, the telegraph ; with the 
additional advantage that all messages are transmitted in 
the sender^s own handwriting. The system has been 
instituted for a quarter of a century, and the Parisians 
would feel lost without it. 

London is by no means tubeless, for it has over forty miles 
of 1|^, 2^, and 3-inch lines radiating from the postal nerve- 
centre of the metropolis, of lengths ranging from 100 to 
2,000 yards. The tubes are in all cases composed of lead, 
enclosed in a protecting iron piping. To make a joint 
great care must be exercised, so as to avoid any irregu- 
larity of bore. When a length of piping is added to the 
line, a chain is first passed through it, which has at the 
end a bright steel mandrel just a shade larger than the 
pipe's internal diameter. This is heated and pushed half- 
way into the pipe already laid ; and the new length is 
forced on to the other half till the ends touch. A 
plumber*'s joint having been made, the mandrel is drawn 
by the chain through the new length, obliterating any 
dents or malformations in the interior. 

The main lines are doubled — an " up '** and a " dow^n '' 
track ; short branches have one tube only to work the 
inward and the outward despatches. 

The carriers are made of gutta-percha covered with felt. 
One end is closed by felt discs fitting the tube accurately 
to prevent the passage of air, the other is open for tlie 
introduction of messages. As they fly through the tube, 
the carriers work an automatic signalling apparatus, which 
u 305 



MODERN MECHANISM 

tells how far they have progressed and when it will be 
safe to despatch the next carrier. 

The London post-office system is worked by six large 
engines situated in the basement of the General Post Office. 

So useful has the pneumatic tube proved that a Bill has 
been before Parliament for supplying London with a 
12-inch network of tubes, totalling 100 miles of double 
line. In a letter published in The Times^ April 19, 1905, 
the promoters of the scheme give a succinct account of 
their intentions, and of the benefits which they expect to 
accrue from the scheme if brought to completion. The 
Batcheller system, they write, with which it is proposed 
to equip London, is not a development of the miniature 
systems used for telegrams or single letters here or in 
Paris, Berlin, and other cities. Such systems deal with 
a felt carrier weighing a few ounces, which is stopped by 
being blown into a box. The Batcheller system deals 
with a loaded steel carrier weighing seventy pounds 
travelling with a very high momentum. The difference is 
fundamental. In this sense pneumatic tubes are a recent 
invention, and absolutely new to Europe. 

The Batcheller system is the response to a pressing 
need. Careful observations show that more than 30 per 
cent, of the street traffic is occupied with parcels and 
mails. These form a distinct class, differentiated from 
passengers on the one hand and from heavy goods on the 
other. The Batcheller system will do for parcels and 
mails what the underground electric railways do for 
passengers. It has been in use for twelve years in America 
for mail purposes, and where used has come to be regarded 
as indispensable. 

306 



PNEUMATIC MAIL TUBES 

The plan for London provides for nearly one hundred 
miles of double tubes with about twice that number of 
stations for receiving and delivery. The system will 
cover practically the County of London, and no point 
within that area can be more than one-quarter of a mile 
from a tube station. Beyond the County of London 
deliveries will be made by a carefully organised suburban 
motor-cart service. Thirty of the receiving stations are 
to be established in the large stores. The diameter of 
the tube is to be of a size that will accommodate 80 per 
cent, of the parcels, as now wrapped, and 90 per cent, 
with slight adaptation. The remaining 10 per cent. — 
furniture, pianos, and other heavy goods — are to be dealt 
with by a supplementary motor service. If the tubes 
were enlarged their object would be partially defeated, 
for with the increased size would go increased cost, great 
surplus of capacity, less frequent despatch, and lower 
efficiency generally. The unsuccessful Euston Tunnel of 
forty years ago — practically an underground railway — 
is an extreme illustration of this point, though in that 
case there were grave mechanical defects as well. 

From a mechanical point of view the system has been 
brought to such perfection that it is no more experimental 
than a locomotive or an electric tramcar. The unique 
value of tube service is due to immediate despatch, high 
velocity of transit, immunity from traffic interruption, 
and economy. The greatest obstacle to rapid intercom- 
munication is the delay resulting from accumulations due 
to time schedules. The function of tube service is to 
abolish time schedules and all consequent delays. 

The number of trades parcels annually delivered in 

307 



MODERN MECHANISM 

London is estimated at more than WOfiOOfiOO, A careful 
canvass has been made of 1,000 shops only, which repre- 
sent a very small fraction of the total number in the 
county. As a result it has been ascertained that these 
1,000 shops deliver no fewer than 60,000,000 parcels 
yearly, a fact that seems to more than justify the foregoing 
estimate ; on the other hand, it is known from official data 
that the parcel post in London is represented by less than 
25,000,000, or one-ninth of the total parcel traffic. With 
a tube system in operation, every parcel, instead of waiting 
for " the next delivery,'''' would leave the shop imme- 
diately. After being despatched by the tube it would be 
delivered at a tube station within a quarter of a mile at 
least of its destination, and thence by messenger. The 
entire time consumed for an ordinary parcel would be 
not over an hour, and for a special parcel fifteen to 
twenty minutes. They require from three to six hours or 
longer at present. 

The advantages of the tube system to the public would 
be manifold. Customers would find their purchases at 
home upon their return, or, if they preferred, could do 
their shopping by telephone, making their selections from 
goods sent on approval by tube. The shopman would 
find himself relieved from a vast amount of confusion and 
annoyance, less of his shop space given up to delivery, 
and his expenses reduced. Small shops would be able to 
draw upon wholesale houses for goods not in stock, 
while the customer waited. Such delay and confusion 
as are frequently occasioned by fogs would be reduced to 
a minimum. 

While the success of the project is not dependent on 

308 



PNEUMATIC MAIL TUBES 

Post Office support, the Post Office should be one of the 
greatest gainers by it. The time of delivery of local 
letters would be reduced from an average of three hours 
and six minutes to one hour. Express letters would be 
delivered more quickly than telegrams. This has been 
demonstrated conclusively again and again in New York 
and other American cities where the tubes have been in 
operation for years. The latest time of posting country 
letters would be deferred from one-half to one hour, and 
incoming letters would be advanced by a similar period. 
The parcels post would gain in precisely the same way, but 
to an even larger extent. 

If the Post Office choose to avail themselves of the 
opportunity, every post office will become a tube station 
and every tube station a post office. Thus the same 
number of postmen covering but a tithe of the present 
distances could make deliveries without time schedules at 
intervals of a few minutes with a handful instead of a 
bagful of letters. 

The sorting of mails would be performed at every 
station instead of at a few. Incoming country mails 
would be taken from the bags at the railway termini, and 
the same bags refilled with outgoing country mails, thus 
avoiding needless carriage to the Post Office and back. 
No bags at all would be used for local mails, the steel 
carriers themselves answering that purpose. 

At every tube terminal a post-office clerk would be 
stationed, so that the mails would never for an instant be 
out of post-office control. Its absolute security would 
be further ensured by a system of locking, so that the 
carriers could only be opened by authorised persons at 

309 



MODERN MECHANISM 

the station to which they were directed. These safe- 
guards offer a striking contrast to the present method that 
entrusts mail bags to the sole custody of van drivers in 
the employ of private contractors. 

If the mails were handled by tube, business men would 
be able to communicate with each other and receive replies 
several times in one day, and country and foreign letters 
could always be answered upon the day of receipt. The 
effect would be felt all over the Empire. 

Would the laying of the tubes seriously impede traffic ? 
The promoters assure us that the inconvenience would not 
be comparable to that caused by laying a gas, water, or 
telephone system. When one of those has been laid the 
annoyance, they urge, has only begun. The streets must 
be periodically reopened for the purpose of making 
thousands of house connections, extensions, and repairs. 
When a pneumatic tube is once down it is good for a 
generation at least. It is not subject to recurrent altera- 
tions incidental to house connections and repairs. In 
three American cities the tubes have been touched but 
three times in twelve years, and in those cases the causes 
were a bursting water main and faulty adjacent electric 
installations. The repairs were effected in a few hours. 

From a general consideration of the scheme we may 
now turn to some mechanical details. The pipes would be 
of 1 foot internal diameter, made in 12-foot lengths. 
" Straight sections,'' writes an engineering correspondent 
of The Times^ "would be of cast-iron, bored, counter- 
bored, and turned to a slight taper at one end, to fit a 
recess at the other end (of the next tube), to form the 
joints, which could be caulked. Joints made in this way 

310 



PNEUMATIC MAIL TUBES 

are estimated to permit of a deflection of 2 inches from 
the straight, so that the laying and bedding need not be 
exact. Bent sections are to be of seamless brass ; these 
are bored true before bending. The permissible cur- 
vature is determined upon the basis of a maximum 
bend of 1 foot radius for every 1 inch of diameter; the 
1 foot diameter of the London tubes would consequently 
be allowed a maximum curvature of 12 foot radius. 
Measured at the enlarged end, the over-all diameter of 
each pipe is 17 inches, and as two such pipes are to be laid 
side by side, with 18 inches between centres, the clear width 
will be 35 inches. The trenches are therefore to be cut 
36 inches wide, and in order to have a comparatively free 
run for the sections, it is proposed to cut the trenches 
6 feet deep." 

When the hundred miles of piping have been laid, the 
entire system will be tested to a pressure of 25 lbs. to 
the square inch, or about two and a half times the working 
pressure. Engines of 10,000 h.p. will be required to feed 
the lines with air, for the propulsion of the carriers, each 
3 feet 10 inches long, and weighing 70 lbs. 

In order to ensure the delivery of a carrier at its proper 
destination, whether a terminus or an intermediate station, 
Mr. Batcheller has made a most ingenious provision. On 
the front of a carrier is fixed a metal plate of a certain 
diameter. At each station two electric wires project into 
the tube, and as soon as a plate of sufficient diameter to 
short-circuit these wires arrives, the current operates 
delivery mechanism, and the carrier is switched off into 
the station box. The despatcher, knowing the exact size 
of disc for each station, can therefore make certain that 
the carrier shall not go astray. 
I 311 



MODERN MECHANISM 

It may occur to the reader that, should a carrier 
accidentally stick anywhere in the tubes, it would be a 
matter of great difficulty to locate it. Evidently one 
could not feel for it with a long rod in half a mile of 
tubing — the distance between every two stations — with 
much hope of finding it. But science has evolved a 
simple, and at the same time quite reliable, method of 
coping with the problem. M. Bontemps is the inventor. 
He located troubles in the Paris tubes by firing a pistol, 
and exactly measuring the time which elapsed between 
the report and its echo. As the rate of sound travel is 
definitely known, instruments of great delicacy enable the 
necessary calculations to be made with great accuracy. 
When a breakdown occurred on the Philadelphia tube line, 
Mr. Batcheller employed this method with great success, 
for a street excavation, made on the strength of rough 
measurements with the timing apparatus, came within 
a few feet of the actual break in the pipe, caused by 
a subsidence, while the carriers themselves were found 
almost exactly at the point where the workmen had been 
told to begin digging.* 

There is no doubt that, were such a system as that 
proposed established, an enormous amount of time would 
be saved to the community. "A letter from Charing 
Cross to Liverpool Street,^^ says The World'^s WorJc^ 
'' occupies by post three hours ; by tube transit it would 
occupy twenty to forty minutes, or by an express system 
of tube transit ten to fifteen minutes. Express messages 
carried by the Post Office in London last year (1903) 
numbered about a million and a half, but the cost some- 

* Cassier's Magazine, xiii. 436. 
312 



PNEUMATIC MAIL TUBES 

times seems very heavy. To send a special message by 
hand from Hampstead to Fleet Street, for example, costs 
Is. 3d., and takes about an hour. It is claimed that it 
could be sent by pneumatic tube at a cost of 3d. in from 
fifteen to twenty minutes, and that for local service the 
tube would be far quicker than the telegraph, and many 
times cheaper." 

It has been calculated that from one-sixth to one- 
quarter of the wheeled traffic of London is occupied 
with the distribution of mails and parcels ; and if the 
tubes relieved the streets to this extent, this fact alone 
would be a strong argument in their favour. It is im- 
possible to believe that tube transmission on a gigantic 
scale will not come. Hitherto its development has been 
hindered by mechanical difficulties. But these have been 
mostly removed. In the United States, where the adage 
" time is money '*'' is lived up to in a manner scarcely 
known on this side of the Atlantic, the device has been 
welcomed for public libraries, warehouses, railway depots, 
factories — in short, for all pui-poses where the employ- 
ment of human messengers means delay and uncertainty. 
Twenty years ago Berlier proposed to connect London 
and Paris by tubes of a diameter equal to that of the 
pipes contemplated in the scheme now before Parliament. 
Our descendants may see the tubes laid ; for when once 
a system of transportation has been proved efficient on a 
large scale its development soon assumes huge propor- 
tions. And even the present generation may witness the 
tubes of our big cities lengthen their octopus arms till 
town and town are in direct communication. After all 
it id merely a question of " Will it pay ? '"* We have 

313 



MODERN MECHANISM 

the meam of uniting Edinburgh and London by tube 
as effectually as by telephone or telegraph. And since 
the general trend of modern commerce is to bring the 
article to the customer rather than to give the customer 
the trouble of going to select the article in situ — this 
applies, of course, to small portable things only — 
" shopping from a distance " will come into greater 
favour, and the pneumatic tube will be recognised as a 
valuable ally. We can imagine that Mrs. Robinson of, 
say, Reading, will be glad to be spared the fatigue of a 
journey to Regent Street when a short conversation over 
the telephone wires is sufficient to bring to her door, 
within an hour, a selection of silver ware from which to 
choose a wedding present. And her husband, whose car 
has perhaps broken a rod at Newbury, will be equally 
glad of the quick delivery of a duplicate part from the 
makers. These are only two possible instances, which do 
not claim to be typical or particularly striking. If you 
sit down and consider what an immense amount of time 
and expense could be saved to you in the course of a 
year by a " lightning despatch,"'' you will soon come to 
the conclusion that the pneumatic tube has a great future 
before it. 



314 



CHAPTER XXIII 
AN ELECTRIC POSTAL SYSTEM 

FAR swifter than the movements of air are those 
of the electric current, which travels many thou- 
sands of miles in a second of time. 

Thirty miles an hour is the speed proposed for the 
pneumatic tube system mentioned in our last chapter. 
An Italian, Count Roberto Taeggi Piscicelli, has elabo- 
rated an electric post which, if realised, will make such 
a velocity as that seem very slow motion indeed. 

Cable railways, for the transmission of minerals, are 
in very common use all over the world. At Hong-Kong 
and elsewhere they do good service for the transport of 
human beings. The car or truck is hauled along a stout 
steel cable, supported at intervals on strong poles of wood 
or metal, by an endless rope wound off and on to a steam- 
driven drum at one end of the line, or motion is imparted 
to it by a motor, which picks up current as it goes from 
the cable itself and other wires with which contact is made. 

Count Piscicelli's electric post is an adaptation of the elec- 
tric cableway to the needs of parcel and letter distribution. 

At present the mail service between towns is entirely 
dependent on the railway for considerable distances, and 
on motors and horsed vehicles in cases where only a 
comparatively few miles intervene. London and Birming- 
ham, to take an instance, are served by seven despatches 

31S 



MODERN MECHANISM 

each way every twenty-four hours. A letter sent from Lon- 
don in the morning would, under the most favourable con- 
ditions, not bring an answer the same day — at least, not dur- 
ing business hours. So that urgent correspondence must be 
conducted over either the telephone or the telegraph wires. 

Count Piscicelli proposes a network of light cableways 
— four lines on a single set of supports — between the great 
towns of Britain. Each line — or rather track — consists 
of four wires, two above and two below, each pair on the 
same level. The upper pair form the run-way for the two 
main wheels of the carrier ; the lower pair are for the 
trailing wheels. Three of the wires supply the three-phase 
current which drives the carrier ; the fourth operates the 
automatic switches installed every three or four miles for 
transforming the high-tension 5,000-volt current into low- 
tension 500- volt current in the section just being entered. 

The carriers would be suitable for letters, book-parcels, 
and light packages. The speed at which they would 
move — 150 miles per hour to begin with — would render 
possible a ten-minute service between, say, the towns 
already mentioned. The inventor has hopes of increasing 
the speed to 250 m.p.h., a velocity which would appear 
visionary had we not already before us the fact that an 
electric car, weighing many tons, has already been sent 
over the Berlin-Zossen Railway at 131^ miles per hour. 
At any rate, the electric post can reasonably be expected 
to outstrip the ordinary express train. "Should such 
speeds as Count Piscicelli confidently discusses," says The 
World's WorJi^ "he attained, they would undoubtedly 
confer immense benefits upon the mercantile and agricul- 
tural community — upon the agricultural community 

316 



AN ELECTRIC POSTAL SYSTEM 

because in this system is to be found that avenue of trans- 
mission to big centres of population of the products 
of la petite culture^ in which Mr. Rider Haggard, for 
example, in his invaluable book on Rural England^ sees 
help for the farmer and for all connected with the cultiva- 
tion of the soil. Count Fiscicelli proposes to obviate the 
delays at despatching and receiving towns by an inter- 
urban postal system, in which the principal offices of any 
city would be connected with the head-office and with the 
principal railway termini. From each of the sub-offices 
would radiate further lines, along which post-collecting 
pillars are erected, and over which lighter motors and 
collecting boxes (similar to the despatch boxes) travel. 
The letter is put in through a slot and the stamp cancelled 
by an automatic apparatus with the name of the district, 
number of the post, and time of posting. The letter 
then falls into a box at the foot of the column. On the 
approach of a collecting-box the letter slot would be 
closed, and by means of an electric motor the receptacle 
containing the letters lifted to the top of the column and 
its contents deposited in the collecting-box, which travels 
alone past other post-collecting poles, taking from each 
its toll, and so on to the district office. Here, in a 
mercantile centre, a first sorting takes place, local letters 
being retained for distribution by postmen, and other 
boxes carry their respective loads to the different railway 
termini, or central office.'' 

Were such an order of things established, there would 
be a good excuse for the old country woman who sat 
watching the telegraph wire for the passage of a pair of 
boots she was sending to her son in far away '^ Lunnon *" ! 

317 



CHAPTER XXIV 
AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY 

PLOUGHS DRILLS AND SEEDERS REAPING MACHINES THRESH- 
ING MACHINES — PETROL-DRIVEN FIELD MACHINERY ELECTRI- 
CAL FARMING MACHINERY 

A GRICULTURE is at once the oldest and most im- 
/ \ portant of all national industries. Man being a 
graminivorous animal — witness his molar, or grind- 
ing, " double '' teeth — has, since the earliest times, been 
obliged to observe the seasons, planting his crops when 
the ground is moist, and reaping them when the weather 
is warm and dry. Apart from the nomad races of the 
deserts and steppes, who find their chief subsistence in 
the products of the date-palm and of their flocks and 
herds, all nations cultivate a large portion of the country 
which they inhabit. Ancient monuments, the oldest 
inscriptions and writings, bear witness to the prime im- 
portance of the plough and reaping-hook ; and it may be 
reasonably assumed that the progress of civilisation is 
proved by the increased use of cereal foods, and better 
methods of garnering and preparing them. 

For thousands of years the sickle, which Greek and 
Roman artists placed in the hand of their Goddess of the 
Harvest, and the rude plough, consisting of, perhaps, only 
a crooked bough with a pointed end, were practically the 

318 



AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY 

only implements known to the husbandman besides his 
spade and mattock. Where labour is abundant and each 
householder has time to cultivate the little plot which 
suffices for the maintenance of his own family, and while 
there is little inducement to take part in other than 
agricultural industries — tedious and time-wasting methods 
have held their own. But in highly civilised communities 
carrying on manufactures of all sorts it is difficult for 
the farmer to secure an abundance of human help, and 
yet it is recognised that a speedy preparation and sowing 
of the land, and a prompt gathering and threshing of the 
harvest, is all in favour of producing a successful and well- 
conditioned crop. 

In England, eighty years ago, three men lived in the 
country for every one who lived in the town. Now the 
proportion has been reversed ; and that not in the British 
Isles alone. The world does not mean to starve ; but 
civilisation demands that as few people as possible should 
be devoted to procuring the " staff of life " for both man 
and beast. 

We should reasonably expect, therefore, that the im- 
mense advance made in mechanical science during the last 
century should have left a deep mark on agricultural 
appliances. Such an expectation is more than justified ; 
for are there not many among us who have seen the sickle 
and the flail at work where now the "self-binder"' and 
threshing machine perform the same duties in a fraction 
of the time formerly required ? The ploughman, plodding 
sturdily down the furrow behind his clever team, is indeed 
still a common sight ; but in the tilling season do we not 
hear the snort of the steam-engine, as its steel rope tears a 

319 



MODERN MECHANISM 

six-furrow plough through the mellow earth ? When the 
harvest comes we realise even more clearly how largely 
machinery has supplanted man ; while in the processes of 
separating the grain from its straw the human element 
plays an even smaller part. It would not be too much to say 
that, were we to revert next year to the practices of our 
grandfathers, we should starve in the year following. 

This chapter will be confined to a consideration of 
machinery operated by horse, steam, or other power, which 
falls under four main headings, — ploughs, drills, reapers, 
and threshers. 

PLOUGHS 

The firm of Messrs. John Fowler and Company, of 
Leeds, is most intimately connected with the introduction 
of the steam plough and cultivator. Their first type of 
outfit included one engine only, the traversing of the 
plough across the field being effected by means of cables 
passing round a pulley on a low, four-wheeled truck, 
moved along the opposite edge of the field by ropes 
dragging on an anchor. Another method was to have the 
engine stationary at one corner of the field, and an anchor 
at each of the three other corners, the two at the ends of 
the furrow being moved for every journey of the plough. 
In, or about, the year 1865 this arrangement succumbed 
to the simple and, as it now seems to us, obvious improve- 
ment of introducing a second engine to progress vis-a-vis 
with the first, and do its share of the pulling. The 
modern eight-furrow steam plough will turn ten acres 
a day quite easily, at a much lower cost than that of 
horse labour. For tearing up land after a crop " cultiva- 
tors '' are sometimes used. They have arrowhead-shaped 

320 



AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY 

coulters, which cut very deep and bring large quantities 
of fresh earth to the surface. 

The ground is now pulverised by harrows of various 
shapes, according to the nature of the crop to be sown. 
English farmers generally employ the spike harrow ; but 
Yankee agriculturists make great use of the spring-tooth 
form, which may best be described as an arrangement of 
very strong springs much resembling in outline the springs 
of house bells. The shorter arm is attached to the frame, 
while the longer and pointed arm tears the earth. 

DRILLS AND SEEDERS 

In highly civilised countries the man carrying a basket 
from which he flings seeds broadcast is a very rare sight 
indeed. The primitive method may have been effective — 
a good sower could cover an acre evenly with half a pint 
of turnip seed — but very slow. We now use a long bin 
mounted on wheels, which revolves discs inside the bin, 
furnished with tiny spoons round the periphery to scoop 
small quantities of seed into tubes terminating in a 
coulter. The farmer is thus certain of having evenly 
planted and parallel rows of grain, which in the early 
spring, when the sprouting begins, make so pleasant an 
addition to the landscape. 

The " corn,'** or maize, crop of the United States is so 
important that it demands special sowing machinery, 
which plants single grains at intervals of about eighteen 
inches. A somewhat similar device is used for planting 
potatoes. 

Passing over the weeding machines, which offer no 
features of particular interest, we come to tlie 
X 321 



MODERN MECHANISM 

REAPING MACHINES, 

on which a vast amount of ingenuity has been expended. 
At the beginning of the nineteenth century the Royal 
Agricultural Society of Great Britain offered a prize for 
the introduction of a really useful machine which should 
replace the scythe and sickle. Several machines were 
brought out, but they did not prove practical enough to 
attract much attention. Cyrus H. McCormick invented 
in 1831 the reaper, which, with very many improvements 
added, is to-day employed in all parts of the world. The 
most noticeable point of this machine was the bar fur- 
nished with a row of triangular blades which passed very 
rapidly to and fro through slots in an equal number of 
sharp steel points, against which they cut the grain. The 
to-and-fro action of the cutter-blade was produced by a 
connecting-rod working on a crank rotated by the wheels 
carrying the machine. 

The first McCormick reaper did wonders on a Virginian 
farm ; other inventors were stimulated ; and in 1833 there 
appeared the Hussey reaper, built on somewhat similar 
lines. For twelve years or so these two machines com- 
peted against one another all over the United States; 
and then McCormick added a raker attachment, which, 
when sufficient grain had accumulated on the platform, 
enabled a second man on the machine to sweep it off to 
be tied up into a sheaf. At the Great Exhibition held 
in London in 1851, the judges awarded a special medal 
to the inventor, reporting that the whole expense of the 
Exhibition would have been well recouped if only the 
reaper were introduced into England. From France 

322 



AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY 

McCormick received the decoration of the Legion of 
Honour " for having done more for the cause of agricul- 
ture than any man then living.**' 

It would be reasonable to expect that, after this public 
recognition, the mechanical reaper would have been 
immediately valued at its true worth. " Yet no man 
had more difficulty in introducing his machines than that 
pioneer inventor of agricultural implements. Farmers 
everywhere were slow to accept it, and manufacturers 
were unwilling to undertake its manufacture. Even after 
the value of the machine had been demonstrated, every- 
one seemed to fear that it would break down on rocky 
and uneven fields ; and the inventor had to demonstrate 
in person to the farmers the practicability of the reapers, 
and then even guarantee them before the money could be 
obtained. Through all these trying discouragements the 
persistent inventor passed before he saw any reward for 
the work that he had spent half a lifetime in perfecting. 
The ultimate triumph of the inventor may be sufficient 
reward for his labours and discouragements, but those 
who would begrudge him the wealth that he subsequently 
made from his invention should consider some of the 
difficulties and obstacles he had to overcome in the 
beginning.*" * 

In 1858 an attachment was fitted to replace the second 
passenger on the machine. Four men followed behind to 
tie up the grain as it was shot off* the machine. 

Inventors tried to abolish the need for these extra 
hands by means of a self-binding device. 

A practical method, employing wire, appeared in 18G0 ; 
* Cassier^s Magazine. 
323 



MODERN MECHANISM 

but SO great was the trouble caused by stray pieces of the 
wire getting into threshing and other machinery through 
which the grain subsequently passed that farmers went 
back to hand work, until the Appleby patent of 1873 
replaced wire by twine. Words alone would convey little 
idea of how the corn is collected and encircled with 
twine ; how the knot is tied by an ingenious shuttle 
mechanism ; and how it is thrown out into a set of arms 
which collect sufficient sheaves to form a " stook ^"' before 
it lets them fall. So we would advise our readers to 
take the next chance of examining a modern self-binder, 
and to persuade the man in charge to give as lucid 
an explanation as he can of the way in which things are 
done. 

Popular prejudice having once been conquered, the 
success of the reapers was assured. The year 1870 saw 
60,000 in use; by 1885 the output had increased to 
250,000 ; and to-day the manufacture of agricultural 
labour-saving machines gives employment to over 200,000 
people ; an equal number being occupied in their trans- 
port and sale in all parts of the globe. 

In California, perhaps more than in any other country, 
" power ^' agricultural machinery is seen at its best. Great 
traction-engines here take the place of human laboui' to 
an extraordinary extent. The largest, of 50 h.p. and 
upwards, " with driving-wheels 60 inches in diameter and 
flanges of generous width, travel over the uneven surface j 
of the grain fields, crossing ditches and low places, and 
ascending the sides of steep hills, with as much apparent 
ease as a locomotive rolls along its steel rails. Such 
powerful traction-engines, or 'automobiles'* as they are 

324 



AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY 

commonly called by the American farmers, are capable of 
dragging behind them sixteen 10-inch ploughs, four 6-foot 
harrows, and a drill and seeder. The land is thus 
ploughed, drilled, and seeded all at one time. From fifty 
to seventy-five acres of virgin soil can thus be ploughed 
and planted in a single day. When the harvest comes 
the engines are again brought into service, and the fields 
that would ordinarily defy the best efforts of an army of 
workmen are garnered quickly and easily. The giant 
harvester is hitched to the traction-engine in place of the 
p ploughs and harrows, and cuts, binds, and stacks the 
^ golden wheat from seventy-five acres in a single day. The 
' cutters are 26 feet wide, and they make a clear swathe 
across the field. Some of them thresh, clean, and sack 
the wheat as fast as it is cut and bound. Other traction- 
engines follow to gather up the sacked wheat, and whole 
train-loads of it thus move across the field to the granaries 
' or railways of the seaboard or interior." 

For "dead ripe*'"' crops the " header ''^ is often used in 
California. Instead of being pulled it is pushed by mules, 
and merely cuts off the heads, leaving the straw to be 
trampled down by the animals since it has no vahie. 
Swathes as wide as 50 feet are thus treated, the grain being 
threshed out while the machine moves. 

One of the most beautiful, and at the same time useful, 
crops in the world is that of maize, which feeds not only 
vast numbers of human beings, but also countless flocks 
and herds, the latter eating the green stalks as well as the 
ripened grain. The United States alone produced no less 
than 2,523,648,312 bushels of this cereal in 1902, as 
against 987,000,000 bushels of wheat, and 670,000,000 

325 



MODERN MECHANISM 

bushels of barley. Now, maize has a very tough stalk, 
often 10 feet high and an inch thick, which cannot be cut 
with the ease of wheat or barley. So a special machine 
has been devised to handle it. The row of com is picked 
up, if fallen, by chains furnished with projecting spikes 
working at an angle to the perpendicular, so as to lift and 
simultaneously pull back the stalks, which pass into a 
horizontal V-shaped frame. This has a broad opening in 
front, but narrows towards its rear end, where stationary 
sickles fixed on either side give the stalk a drawing cut 
before it reaches the single knife moving to right and 
left in the angle of the V, which severs the stalk com- 
pletely. The McCormick machine gathers the corn in 
vertical bundles, and ties them up ready for the 
" shockers.**' 

THRESHING MACHINES 

In principle these are simple enough. The straw and 
grain is fed into a slot and pulled down between a toothed 
rotating drum and a fixed toothed concave. These tear 
out the grain from the ear. The former falls into the 
hopper of a winnowing and riddling machine, which clears 
it from dust and husks, and allows it to pass to a hopper. 
An endless chain of buckets carries it to the delivery bins, 
holding just one sackful each, which when full discharge 
the grain through spouts into the receptacles waiting 
below their mouths. An automatic counter records the 
number of sackfuls of corn that have been discharged, so 
that dishonesty on the part of employes becomes prac- 
tically an impossibility. While the grain is thus treated, 
oscillating rakes have arranged the straw and shaken it 

326 




Jiu 



AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY 

out behind in a form convenient for binding, and the chafF 
has passed to its proper heap, to be used as fuel for the 
engine or as food for cattle. 

PETROL-DRIVEN FIELD MACHINERY 

On water, rail, and road the petrol engine has entered 
into rivalry with steam — very successfully too. And now 
it bids fair to challenge both steam-engine and horse as 
the motive power for agricultural operations. Probably 
the best-known English petrol-driven farmer's help is that 
made by Mr. Dan Albone, of Biggleswade, who in past 
times did much to introduce the safety bicycle to the 
public. The " Ivel "*' motor is not beautiful to look upon ; 
its sides are slab, its outlines rather suggestive of an in- 
verted punt. But it is a willing and powerful worker; 
requires no feeding in the early hours of the morning ; no 
careful brush down after the day'^s work ; no halts to ease 
wearied muscles. In one tank is petrol, in another lubri- 
cating oil, in a third water to keep the cylinders cool. A 
double-cylinder motor of 18 h.p. transmits its energy 
through a large clutch and train of cogs to the road 
wheels, made extra wide and well corrugated so that they 
shall not sink into soft ground or slip on hard. There is 
a broad pulley-wheel peeping out from one side of the 
machine, which is ready to drive chaff-cutters or threshers, 
pump, grind corn, or turn a dynamo at a moment's notice. 

Hitch the " Ivel '"* on to a couple of reapers or a three- 
furrow plougli, and it soon shows its superiority to 
"man's friend." Here are some records: — 

Eleven acres, one rood, thirteen poles of wet loam land 
ploughed in 11^ hours, at a cost per acre of 5s. 

327 



MODERN MECHANISM 

Nineteen acres of wheat reaped and bound in 10 hours, 
at a cost of Is. 9d, per acre. 

Fifteen acres, three roods of heavy grass cut in 3J 
hours, cost. Is. per acre. 

With horses the average cost of ploughing is about 
10s. an acre ; of reaping 5s. So that the motor does at 
least twice the work for the same money. 

We may quote a paragraph from the pen of " Home 
Counties," a well-known and perspicacious writer on 
agricultural topics. 

"It is because motor-farming is likely to result in a 
more thorough cultivation of the land and a more skilful 
and more enlightened practice of agriculture, and not in 
a further extension of those deplorable land-scratching 
and acre -grasping methods of which so many pitiful 
examples may be seen on our clay soils, that its begin- 
nings are being sympathetically watched by many people 
who have the best interests of the rural districts and the 
prosperity of agriculture at heart."'*' * 

Will our farmers give the same welcome to the agri- 
cultural motor that was formerly accorded to the 
mechanical reaper? Prophecy is risky, but if, before a 
decade has elapsed, the horse has not been largely 
replaced by petrol on large farms and light land, the 
writer of these lines will be much surprised. 

ELECTRICAL FARMING MACHINERY 

In France, Germany, Austria, and the United States 
the electric motor has been turned to agricultural uses. 
Where water-power is available it is peculiarly suitable 

* The World's Work, vol iii. 499. 
328 



AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY 

for stationary work, such as threshing, chafF- cutting, 
root-slicing, grinding, etc. The current can be easily 
distributed all over a large farm and harnessed to port- 
able motors. Even ploughing has been done with elec- 
tricity : the energy being derived either from a steam- 
engine placed near by, or from an overhead supply passing 
to the plough through trolley arms similar to those used 
on electric trams. 

The great advances made recently in electrical power 
transmission, and in the efficiency of the electric motor, 
bring the day in sight when on large properties the fields 
will be girt about by cables and poles as permanent 
fixtures. All the usual agricultural operations of plough- 
ing, drilling, and reaping will then be independent of 
horses, or of steam-engines panting laboriously on the 
headlands. In fact, the experiment has been tried with 
success in the United States. Whichever way we look. 
Giant Steam is bowing before a superior power. 



329 



CHAPTER XXV 
DAIRY MACHINERY 

MILKING MACHINES CREAM SEPARATORS — A MACHINE FOR 

DRYING MILK 

MILKING MACHINES 

THE farm labourer, perched on a three-legged stool, 
his head leaning against the soft flank of a cow 
as he squirts the milk in snowy jets into the 
frothing pail, is, like the blacksmith's forge throwing out 
its fiery spark-shower, one of those sights which from 
childhood up exercise a mild fascination over the on- 
looker. Possibly he or she may be an interested person 
in more senses than one, if the contents of the pail are 
ultimately to provide a refreshing drink, for milk never 
looks so tempting as when it carries its natural froth. 

Modern methods of dairying demand the most 
scrupulous cleanliness in all processes. Pails, pans, and 
"churns'** should be scoured until their shining surfaces 
suggest that on them the tiniest microbe could not find 
a footing. Buildings must be well aired, scrubbed, and 
treated occasionally with disinfectants. Even then danger 
may lurk unseen, and the milk is therefore for certain 
purposes sterilised by heating it to a temperature 
approaching boiling-point and simultaneously agitating 
it mechanically to prevent the formation of a scum on 

330 



DAIRY MACHINERY 

the surface. It is then poured into sealed bottles which 
bid defiance to exterior noxious germs. 

The human hand, even if washed frequently, is a diffi- 
cult thing to keep scientifically clean. The milkman has 
to put his hand now on the cowl's side, now on his stool ; 
in short, he is constantly touching surfaces which cannot 
be guaranteed germless. He may, therefore, infect the 
teats, which in turn infect the milk. So that, for health'^s 
sake as well as to minimise the labour and expense of 
milking, various devices have been tried for mechanically 
extracting the fluid from the udder. Many of these have 
died quick deaths, on account of their practical imperfec- 
tions. But one, at least, may be pronounced a success — 
the Lawrence-Kennedy cow-milker, which is worked by 
electricity, and supplies another proof of the adaptability 
of the " mysterious fluid " to the service of man. 

On the Isle de la Loge in the Seine is a dairy farm 
which is most up-to-date in its employment of labour- 
saving appliances, including that just mentioned. Here 
a turbine generates power to work vacuum pumps of large 
capacity. The pumps are connected to tubes terminating 
in cone-shaped rubber caps that can be easily slipped on 
to the teat ; four caps branching out from a single suction 
chamber. As soon as they have been adjusted, the milk- 
man — now shorn of a great part of his rights to that title 
— turns on the vacuum cock, and the pulsator, a device to 
imitate the periodic action of hand milking, conuncnces 
to work. The number of pulsations per minute can be 
regulated to a nicety by adjusting screws. On its way to 
the pail the milk passes through a glass tube, so that the 
operator may see when the milking is completed. 

331 



MODERN MECHANISM 

This method eliminates the danger of hand contamina- 
tion. It also protects the milk entirely from the air, and 
it has been stated that, when thus extracted, milk keeps 
sweet for a much longer time than under the old system. 
The cows apparently do not object to machinery replacing 
man, not even the Jersey breed, which are the most fidgety 
of all the tribe. Under the heading of economy the user 
scores heavily, for a single attendant can adjust and watch 
a number of mechanical milkers, whereas " one man, one 
cow '*' must be the rule where the hand is used. From the 
point of romance, the world may lose ; the vacuum pump 
cannot vie with the pretty milkmaid of the songs. Prac- 
tical people will, however, rest content with pure milk 
minus the beauty, in preference to milk plus the microbe 
and the milkmaid, who — especially when she is a man — is 
not always so very beautiful after all. 

CREAM SEPARATORS 

In the matter of separating the fatty from the watery 
elements of milk machinery also plays a part. The 
custom of allowing the cream to "rise'' in open pans 
suffices for small dairies where speed and thoroughness of 
separation are not of primary importance. But when 
cream is required in wholesale quantities for the markets 
of large towns, or for conversion into butter, much greater 
expedition is needed. 

The mechanical cream separator takes advantage of the 
laws of centrifugal force. Milk is poured into a bowl 
rotating at high speed on a vertical axis. The heavier — 
watery — portions climb up the sides of the bowl in their 
endeavour to get as far away as possible from the centre 

332 



DAIRY MACHINERY 

of motion ; while the lighter particles of cream, not having 
so much momentum, are compelled to remain at the 
bottom. By a simple mechanical arrangement, the — very 
— skim milk is forced out of one tube, and the cream out 
of another. An efficient separator removes up to 99 per 
cent, of the butter fat. Small sizes, worked by hand, 
treat from 10 to 100 gallons of milk per hour ; while the 
large machines, extensively used in "creameries,"" and 
turned by horse, steam, electric, or other power, have 
a capacity of 450 gallons per hour. The saving effected 
by mechanical methods of separation is so great that 
dairy-farmers can now make a good profit on butter which 
formerly scarcely covered out-of-pocket expenses incurred 
in its manufacture. 

A MACHINE FOR DRYING MILK 

Milk contains 87 per cent, of water and about 12 per 
cent, of nutritive matter. Milk which has had the water 
evaporated from it becomes a highly concentrated food, 
very valuable for many purposes which could not be served 
by the natural fluid. Until lately the process of separat- 
ing the solid and liquid constituents was too costly to 
render the manufacture of " dried milk " a profitable in- 
dustry. But now there is on the market a drying ap- 
paratus, manufactured by Messrs. James Milnes and Son, 
of Edinburgh, which almost instantaneously drives off the 
water. 

The machine used for this — the Just-IIatmaker — pro- 
cess is simple. It consists of two large metal drums, 
28 inches in diameter and 5 feet long, mounted hori- 
zontally in a framework with a space of about one-eighth 

333 



MODERN MECHANISM 

of an inch between them. High-pressure steam, admitted 
to the drums through axial pipes, raises their surfaces to 
a temperature of 220'' Fahr. The milk is allowed to 
flow in thin streams over the revolving drums, the heat 
of which quickly evaporates the water. A coating of solid 
matter gradually forms, and this is scraped off by a knife 
and falls into a receptacle. 

The milk is not boiled nor chemically altered in any 
way, though completely sterilised by the heat. This 
machine promises to revolutionise the milk trade, as 
farmers will now be able to convert the very perishable 
product of their dairies into an easily handled and im- 
perishable powder of great use for cooking and the 
manufacture of sweetmeats. Explorers and soldiers can 
have their milk supply reduced to tabloid form, and a 
pound tin of the lozenges will temper their tea or coifee 
over many a camp fire far removed from the domestic 
cow. 



334 



I 



CHAPTER XXVI 
SCULPTURING MACHINES 

THE savage who, with a flint point or bone splinter, 
laboriously scratched rude figures on the walls of 
his cave dwelling, did the best he was capable of to 
express the emotions which affect the splendidly equipped 
sculptor of to-day ; he wished to record permanently some 
shape in which for the time he was interested, religiously 
or otherwise. 

The sun, moon and stars figure largely in primitive 
religions as objects of worship. They could be easily 
suggested by a few strokes of a tool. But when mortals 
turned from celestial to terrestrial bodies, and to the 
worship of human or animal forms — the '' graven images ''^ 
of the Bible — a much higher level of art was reached by 
the sculptor, who endeavoured to give faithful representa- 
tions in marble of the great men of the time and of the 
gods which his nation acknowledged. 

The Egyptians, whose colossal monuments strew the 
banks of the Nile, worked in the most stubborn materials — 
basalt, porphyry and granite — which would turn the edge 
of highly tempered steel, and therefore raise wonder in our 
minds as to the nature of the tools which the subjects of 
the Pharaohs must have possessed. Only one chisel, of a 
bronze so soft that its edge turned at the first stroke 

335 



MODERN MECHANISM 

against the rock under which it was found, has so far come 
to light. Of steel tools there is no trace, and we are left 
to the surmise that the ancients possessed some forgotten 
method of hardening other metals— including bronze — to 
a pitch quite unattainable to-day. Whatever were their 
implements, they did magnificent work; witness the 
splendid sculptures of vast proportions to be found in the 
British Museum ; and the yet huger statues, such as those 
of Memnon and those at Karnak, which attract tourists 
yearly to Egypt, 

The Egyptians admired magnitude ; the Greeks per- 
fection of outline. The human form in its most ideal 
development, so often found among a nation with whom 
athleticism was almost a religion, inspired many of the 
great classical sculptors, whose work never has been, and 
probably never will be, surpassed. Great honour awaited 
the winner in the Olympian games ; but the most coveted 
prize of all was the permission given him — this after a 
succession of victories only — to erect a statue of himself 
in the sacred grove near the shrine of Olympian Jove. 
Happy the man who knew that succeeding generations 
would gaze upon a marble representation of some charac- 
teristic attitude assumed by him during his struggle for 
the laurel crown. 

Until recently the methods of sculpture have remained 
practically unaltered for thousands of years. The artist 
first models his idea in clay or wax, on a small scale. He 
then, if he designs a life-size or colossal statue, erects a 
kind of iron skeleton to carry the clay of the full-sized 
model, copied proportionately from the smaller one. When 
this is finished, a piece-mould is formed from it by apply- 

336 



SCULPTURING MACHINES 

ing wet lumps of plaster of Paris all over the surface in 
such a manner that they can be removed piecemeal, and 
fitted together to form a complete mould. Into this liquid 
plaster is run, for a hollow cast of the whole figure, which 
is smoothed and given its finishing touches by the master 
hand. 

This cast has next to be reproduced in marble. Both 
the cast and the block of marble are set up on " scale- 
stones,**' revolving on vertical pivots. An ingenious instru- 
ment, called a " pointing machine,"*' now comes into play. 
It has two arms ending in fine metal points, movable in 
ball-and-socket joints. These arms are first applied to the 
model, the lower being adjusted to touch a mark on the 
scale-stone, the upper to just reach a mark on the figure. 
The operator then clamps the arms and revolves the 
machine towards the block of marble, the scale-stone of 
which has been marked similarly to its fellow. The 
bottom arm is now set to rest on the corresponding mark 
of the scale-stone ; but the upper, which can slide back 
telescopically, is prevented from assuming its relative posi- 
tion by the unremoved portions of the block. The work- 
man therefore merely notices the point on the block at 
which the needle is directed, and drills a hole into the 
marble on the line of the needle's axis, to a depth sufiicient 
to allow the arm to be fully extended. This process is re- 
peated, in some cases many thousands of times, until the 
block has been honeycombed with small holes. The carver 
can now strike off* the superfluous marble, never going 
beyond the depth of a hole ; and a rough outline of the 
statue appears. A more skilled workman follows him to 
shape the material to a close copy of the cast ; and the 
Y - 337 



MODERN MECHANISM 

sculptor himself adds the finishing touches which stamp 
his personality on the completed work. 

Only a select few of the world's greatest sculptors have 
ventured to strike their statues direct from the marble, 
without recourse to a preliminary model. Such a one was 
Michelangelo, who, as though seized by a creative frenzy, 
would hew and hack a block so furiously that the chips 
flew off* like a shower, continuing his attack for hours, yet 
never making the single false stroke that in the case of 
other masters has ruined the work of months. He truly 
was a genius, and must have possessed an almost super- 
natural faculty of knowing when he had reached the 
exact depth at any point in the great block of marble 
from which his design gradually emerged. 

The formation of artistic models will always require the 
master's hand ; but the reproduction of the cast in marble 
or stone can now be performed much more expeditiously 
than is possible with the pointing machine. We have 
already two successful mechanisms which in an almost 
incredibly short time will eat a statue out of a block 
in faithful obedience to the movement of a pointer over 
the surface of a finished design. They are the Wenzel 
Machine Sculptor and Signor Augusto Bontempi's Mec- 
caneglofo, 

THE WENZEL SCULPTURING MACHINE 

In the basement of a large London business house we 
found, one dark November afternoon, two men at work 
with curious-looking frameworks, which they swayed back- 
wards and forwards, up and down, to the accompaniment 
of a continuous clattering of metal upon stone. Approach- 
ing nearer, we saw, lying horizontally in the centre of the 

338 



SCULPTURING MACHINES 

machine, a small marble statue, its feet clamped to a plate 
with deep notches in the circumference. On either side, at 
equal distances, were two horizontal blocks of marble 
similarly attached to similar plates. The workman had 
his eyes glued on a blunt-nosed pointer projecting from 
the middle of a balanced frame. This he passed slowly 
over the surface of the statue, and simultaneously two 
whirring drills also attached to the frame ate into the 
stone blocks just so far as the movement of the frame 
would permit. The drills were driven by electric power 
and made some thousands of revolutions per minute, 
throwing off the stone they bit away in the form of an 
exceedingly fine white dust. 

It was most fascinating to watch the almost sentient 
performance of the drills. Just as a pencil in an artisfs 
hands weaves line into line until they all suddenly spring 
into life and show their meaning, so did the drills chase 
apparently arbitrary grooves which united, spread, and 
finally revealed the rough-hewn limb. 

Every now and then the machinist twisted the foot- 
plates round one notch, and snicked the retaining bolts 
into them. This exposed a fresh area of the statue and 
of the blocks to the pointer and the drills. The large, 
coarse drills used to clear away the superfluous material 
during the earlier stages of the work were replaced by 
'finer points. The low relief was scooped out, the limbs 
moulded, the delicate curves of cheek and the pencilling 
of eyebrows and lips traced, and in a few hours the copies 
were ready for the usual smoothing and finishing at the 
hands of the human sculptor. 

According to the capacity of the machine two, four, or 

339 



MODERN MECHANISM 

six duplicates can be made at the cost of a little more 
power and time. Nor is it necessary to confine operations 
to stone and marble, for we were shown some admirable 
examples of wooden statues copied from a delicate little 
bronze, and, were special drills provided, the relations 
could be reversed, bronze becoming passive to motions 
controlled by a wooden original. 

" Sculpturing made easy "' would be a tempting legend 
to write over the Wenzel machine. But it would not 
represent the truth. After all, the mechanism only 
copies^, it cannot originate, which is the function of the 
sculptor. It stands to sculpturing in the same relation as 
the printer^s "process block'*'' to the artisfs original 
sketch, or the lithographic plates to the painter's coloured 
picture. Therefore prejudice against machine - made 
statues is as unreasonable as objection to the carefully- 
executed replica of a celebrated painting. The sculptor 
himself has not produced it at first hand, yet his person- 
ality has been stamped even on the copy, for the machine 
can do nothing except what has already been done for it. 
The machine merely displaces the old and imperfect 
" pointing "" by hand, substituting a method which is 
cheaper, quicker, and more accurate in its interpretation 
of the model. 

It is obvious that, apart from sculpture proper, the 
industrial arts affbrd a wide field for this invention. In 
architecture, for instance, carved wood and stonework for 
interiors and exteriors of buildings have been regarded 
hitherto as expensive luxuries, yet in spite of their cost 
they are increasingly indulged in. The architect now has 
at his disposal an economical method of carving which 

340 



I 



SCULPTURING MACHINES 

will enable him to utilise ornamental stonework to almost 
any degree. Sculptured friezes, cornices, and capitals, 
which, under the old regime, would represent months of 
highly paid hand labour, may now be reproduced rapidly 
and in any quantity by the machine, which could be 
adapted to work on the scaffolding itself. 

What will become of the stonemasons ? Won't they 
all be thrown out of work, or at least a large number of 
them ? The best answer to these questions will be found 
in a consideration of industries in which machinery has 
replaced hand work. Has England, as a cotton-spinning 
nation, benefited because the power-loom was introduced ? 

[ Does she employ more operatives than she would other- 

I wise have done, and are these better paid than the old 
hand weavers? All these queries must have "Yes !''' written 
against them. In like manner, if statuary and decoration 
becomes inexpensive, twenty people will be able to afford 
what hitherto was within the reach of but one ; and an 
industry will arise beside which the output of the present- 
day monumental mason will appear very insignificant. 
The sculpturing machine undoubtedly brings us one step 
nearer the universal House Beautiful. 

A complete list of the things which the versatile 
" Wenzel " can perform would be tediously long. Let it 

, therefore suffice to mention boot-lasts, gun-stocks, moulds, 
engineering patterns, numeral letters, and other articles of 

i irregular shape, as some of the more prosaic productions 
which grow under the buzzing metal points. Some readers 
may be glad to hear that the Wenzel promises another 
hobby for the individual who likes to "use his hands,'' 

[ since miniature machines are purchasable which treat 

34 » 



MODERN MECHANISM 

subjects of a size not exceeding six inches in diameter. No 
previous knowledge of carving is necessary, and as soon 
as the elementary principles have been mastered the 
possessor of a small copier can take advantage of wet days 
to turn out statuettes, busts, and ornamental patterns for 
his own or friends'' mantelpieces. And surely a carefully 
finished copy in white marble of some dainty classic figure 
or group will be a gift well worth receiving ! The 
amateur photographer, the fret-sawyer, and the chip- 
carver will have to write " Ichabod '*' over their work- 
shops ! 

The Wenzel has left its experimental stage far behind. 
The German Emperor, after watching the creation of a 
miniature bust of Beethoven, expressed his delight in a 
machine that could call a musician from lifeless stone. 
The whole of the interior decoration of the magnificent 
Rathaus, Charlottenburg, offers a splendid example of 
mechanical wood carving, which tourists would do well to 
inspect. 

We may now pass to 

THE BONTEMPI SCULPTURING MACHINE, 

for such is the translation of the formidable word Mecca- 
neglofo. This machine is the invention of Signor Augusto 
Bontempi, a native of Parma, who commenced life as 
a soldier in the Italian army, and while still young has 
won distinction as a clever engineer. 

His machine differs in most constructional details from 
the Wenzel. To begin with, the pressure of the drills on 
the marble is imparted by water instead of by the hand ; 
secondly, the block to be cut is arranged vertically instead 

342 




A SMALL WKNZKL AUTOMATIC SCU LP lU K 1 NT. MArillNL 

This cuts slaluettes, two at a time, out of stone or wood, the cullers heiiij^ .L;uiileil l>y a 
pointer passed over the surface oC ihe niotlel hy tlie .<;irl. 






i 



SCULPTURING MACHINES 

of horizontally ; thirdly, the index-pointer is not rigidly 
connected to the drill frame, but merely controls the 
valves of hydraulic mechanism which guides the drills 
in any required direction. The drills are rotated by 
electricity, but all their other movements come from the 
pressure of water. 

Undoubtedly the most ingenious feature of the 
Bontempi apparatus is the pointer's hydraulic valve, 
which gives the drills a forward, lateral, or upward 
movement, or a compound of two or three movements. 
When the pointer is not touched all the valve orifices 
remain closed, and the machine ceases to work. Should 
the operator pull the pointer forwards a water-way is 
opened, and the liquid passes under great pressure to a 
cylinder which pushes the drill frame forward. If the 
pointer be also pressed sideways, a second channel opens 
and brings a second cylinder into action, and the frame 
as a whole is moved correspondingly, while an upward 
twist operates yet a third set of cylinders, and the work- 
man himself rises with the drills. 

As soon as the sensitive tip of the pointer touches 
an object it telescopes, and immediately closes the valves, 
so that the drills bore no further in that direction. 

The original and copies are turned about from time to 
time on their bases in a manner similar to that already 
described in treating the Wenzel. As many as twenty 
copies can be made on the largest machines. 

Quite recently there has been installed in Southwark, 
London, a gigantic Bontempi which stands 27 feet high, 
and handles blocks 5 feet 6 inches s(iuare by 10 feet high, 
and some 20 tons in weight. Owing to the huge masses 

343 



MODERN MECHANISM 

to be worked only one copy can be made at a time ; 
though, doubtless, if circumstances warranted the expense, 
a machine could be built to do double, triple, or quad- 
ruple duty. The proprietors have discovered an abrasive 
to grind granite — ordinary steel chisels would be useless — 
and they expect a great demand for columns and monu- 
mental work in this stubborn material, as their machines 
turn out finished stuff a dozen times faster than the 
mason. 

An interesting story is told about the early days of 
Signor Bontempi''s invention. When he set up his experi- 
mental machine at Florence, the workmen^ following the 
example of the Luddites, rose in a body and threatened 
both him and his apparatus with destruction. The police 
had to be called in to protect the inventor, who thought 
it prudent to move his workshop to Naples, where the 
populace had broader -minded views. The Florentines 
are now sorry that they drove Signor Bontempi away, 
for they find that instead of depressing the labour 
market, the mechanical sculptor is a very good friend 
to both proprietor and employe. 

Note. — For information and illustrations the author has to thank 
Mr. W. Hanson Boorne, of the Machine Sculpture Company, Alder- 
mary House, London, E.G., and Mr. E. W. Gaz, secretary of the 
Automatic Sculpture Syndicate, Sumner Street, Southwark. 



344 



CHAPTER XXVII 

AN AUTOMATIC RIFLE 

WHILE science works ceaselessly to cure the ills 
that human flesh is heir to, invention as per- 
sistently devises weapons for man's destruction. 
Yesterday it was the discoveries of Pasteur and the 
Maxim gun ; to-day it is the Finsen rays and the Rexer 
automatic rifle. 

Though one cannot restrain a sigh on examining a new 
contrivance, the sole function of which is to deal out 
death and desolation — sadly wondering why such in- 
genuity might not have been directed to the perfecting of 
a machine which would render life more easy and more 
pleasant ; yet from a book which deals with modern 
mechanisms we may not entirely exclude reference to 
a class of engines on which man has expended so much 
thought ever since gunpowder first entered the arena of 
human strife. 

We therefore choose as our subject for this chapter 
a weapon hailing from Denmark, a country which, though 
small in area, contains many inventors of no mean repute. 

In a London oflice, within sight of the monument raised 
to England's great sailor hero, the writer first made ac- 
quaintance with the Rexer gun, which, venomous device 
that it is, can spit forth death 300 times a minute, though 
it weighs only about 18 lbs. 

Y2 345 



MODERN MECHANISM 

Its form is that of an ordinary rifle of somewhat clumsy 
build. The eye at once picks out a pair of supports 
which project from a ring encircling it near the muzzle. 
Even a strong man w^ould find 18 lbs. too much to 
hold to his shoulder for any length of time ; so the 
Rexer is primarily intended for stationary work. The 
user lies prone, rests the muzzle on its supports, presses 
the butt to his shoulder, and blazes away. History re- 
peats itself in the chronicles of firearms, though it is 
a very long way from the old matchlock supported on a 
forked stick to the latest thing in rifles propped up by 
two steel legs. 

Machine-guns, such as the Maxim and Hotchkiss, 
weigh 60 lbs. and upwards, and have to be caiTied on 
a wheeled carriage, drawn either by horses or by a number 
of men. In very rough country they must be loaded on 
pack-horses or mules. When required for action, the gun, 
its supports and appliances, separated for packing, must be 
hurriedly reassembled. This means loss of valuable time. 

The Rexer rifle can be carried almost as easily as a Lee- 
Metford or Mauser, and fires the ordinary small-bore 
ammunition. WTierever infantry or cavalry can go, it can 
go too, without entailing any appreciable amount of extra 
haulage. 

Before dealing with its actual use as a fighting arm we 
will notice the leading features of its construction. 

The gun comprises the stock, the casing and trigger- 
plate which enclose the breech mechanism, the barrel, 
and the perforated barrel cover, to which are attached the 
forked legs on which the muzzle end is supported when 
firing, and which fold up under the cover when not in use. 

346 



AN AUTOMATIC RIFLE 

The power for working the mechanism is obtained from 
the recoil, which, when the gun is fired, drives the barrel, 
together with the breech and the other moving parts, 
some two inches backwards, thus compressing the powerful 
recoil-spring which lies behind the breech, enclosed in the 
front part of the stock, and which, after the force of the 
recoil is spent, expands, and thus drives the barrel forward 
again into the firing position. The recoil and return of 
the breech operate a set of levers and other working parts 
within the casing, which, by their combined actions follow- 
ing one another in fixed order, open the breech, eject 
the empty cartridge-case, insert a new cartridge into the 
chamber, and close the breech ; and when the gun is set 
for automatic action, and the gunner keeps his finger 
pressed on the trigger, the percussion arm strikes the 
hammer and the cartridge is fired; the round of operations 
repeating itself till the magazine is emptied, or until the 
gunner releases the trigger and thereby interrupts the firing. 
A noticeable feature is the steel tube surrounding 
the barrel. It is pierced with a number of openings to 
permit a circulation of air to cool the barrel, which is 
furnished with fins similar to those on the cylinder of an 
air-cooled petrol motor to help dissipate the heat caused 
by the frequent explosions. Near the ends of the cover 
are the guides, in which the barrel moves backwards and 
forwards under the influence of the recoil and the recoil- 
spring. The supports are attached to the casing in such 
a way that the stock of the gun can be elevated or de- 
pressed and traversed through considerable angles without 
altering the position of the supports on the ground. The 
rear end of the barrel cover is firmly fixed to the casing 

347 



MODERN MECHANISM 

of the breech mechanism, and forms with this and the 
stock the rigid part of the gun in which the moving por- 
tions work, their motions being guided and controlled by 
cams and studs working in grooves and notches and on 
blocks attached to the rigid parts. 

Without the aid of special diagrams it is rather hard to 
explain the working of even a simple mechanism ; but the 
writer hopes that the following verbal description, for 
which he has to thank the Rexer Company, will at least 
go some way towards elucidating the action of the breech 
components. 

Inside the casing is the breech, the front end of which 
is attached rigidly to the barrel, the rear end being in 
contact with the recoil arm, which is directly operated by 
the recoil spring lying in a recess in the stock. In the 
breech is the breech-block, which has three functions : 
first to guide the new^ cartridges from the distributer, 
which passed them from the magazine one by one into the 
casing, to the firing po&ition in the chamber (i.e. the 
expanded part of the bore at the rear end of the barrel) ; 
secondly, to hold the cartridge firmly fixed in the chamber, 
and to act as an abutment or support to the back of the 
cartridge when it is fired, and thus transmit the backward 
force of the explosion to the recoil spring ; thirdly, to 
allow the spent cartridges to be discharged from the 
chamber by the extractor, and to direct them by means 
of a guide curved downwards from the chamber, so that 
they may be flung through an opening provided for that 
purpose in the trigger-plate in front of the trigger, and 
out of the way of the gunner. (This opening is closed 
by a cover when the gun is not in use, and opens auto- 

348 



AN AUTOMATIC RIFLE 

matically before the shot can be fired.) In order to effect 
this threefold object, the breech-block is pivoted in the 
rear to the rear of the breech, and has a vertical angular 
motion within it, so that the fore end of the block can 
move into three different positions in relation to the 
chamber : one, below the chamber to guide the cartridge 
into it ; one, directly in line with the chamber, to back 
the cartridge ; and one, above the chamber, to allow the 
ejection of the spent cartridge-case by the extractor. The 
cartridge is fired by a long pin through the breech-block, 
struck behind by a hammer operated by a special spring. 

The first function of the breech-block is, as we have 
said, to act as a guide for the cartridge into the chamber 
ready for firing, after the fashion of the old Martini- 
Henry breech-block. The actual pushing forward of the 
cartridge is performed by a lever sliding on the top of the 
block. After the explosion a small vertical lever jerks 
out the cartridge-case against the block, and causes it to 
cannon downwards through the aperture in the trigger- 
plate already mentioned. 

On the left-hand side of the breech casing is a small 
chamber, open at the top and on the side next the breech. 
To the top is clipped the magazine, filled with twenty-five 
cartridges. The magazine is shaped somewhat like a slice 
of melon, only that the curved back and front are parallel. 
The sides converge towards the inner edge. It is closed 
at the lower end by a spring secured by a catch. ^Vhcn 
a magazine is attached to the open top of the chamber 
the catch is released so as to put chamber and magazine 
in direct communication. The cartridges would thou be 
able to drop straight into the breech chamber through 

349 



MODERN MECHANISM 

the side slot, were the latter not protected by a curved 
horizontal shutter, called the distributer. Its action is 
such that when a cartridge is being passed through into 
the breech casing, the shutter closes, and holds the re- 
maining cartridges in the magazine ; and when the 
cartridge has passed it opens and lets the next into 
position in the side casing. 

As soon as a cartridge enters the breech it is pushed 
forward into the chamber ready for firing by the feeder 
lever. The magazine and the holder are so arranged that 
when the last cartridge has passed from the magazine to 
the distributer, the motion of the moving parts of the 
gun is arrested till the magazine is removed, when the 
motion is resumed so far as to push the remaining 
cartridge into the chamber and bring the breech-block 
into the firing position. When another magazine has 
been fixed in the holder, firing can be resumed by pulling 
the trigger; but if another magazine is not fixed in the 
holder the last cartridge cannot be fired by pulling the 
trigger, and only by pulling a handle which will be presently 
described. This arrangement secures the continuance of 
the automatic firing being interrupted only by the very 
brief interval required for charging the apparatus. 

The gun is fired, as usual, by pulling a trigger. If 
a steady pull be kept on the trigger the whole contents of 
the magazine will be fired automatically (the last cartridge 
excepted); but if such continuous firing is not desired, 
a few shots at a time may be fired automatically by 
alternately pulling and releasing the trigger. If it is 
desired to fire shot by shot from the magazine, a small 
swivel on the trigger-guard is moved so as to limit the 

350 



AN AUTOMATIC RIFLE 

movement of the trigger. By moving this swivel out of 
the way, automatic firing is resumed. The gun may also 
be fired without a magazine by simply feeding cartridges 
by hand into the magazine holder. In front of the 
trigger-guard is a safety catch, and if this is set to " safe **' 
the gun cannot be fired until the catch is moved to " fire."" 

It is obvious that the recoil cannot come into action 
until a shot has been fired. A handle is therefore 
provided on the right-hand side outside the casing, by 
means of which the bolt forming the axis of the recoil 
and percussion arms may be turned so as to imitate the 
action of the recoil. This handle must be turned to 
bring the first cartridge into the chamber, but this 
having been done, the handle returns to its normal 
position, and need not be moved again. 

We may now watch a gunner at work. He chooses 
his position, opens out the supports, and pushes them 
into the ground so as to give the muzzle end a firm 
bearing. He then takes a magazine from the box he 
carries with him, and fixes it by a rapid motion into the 
magazine holder, then, resting his left hand on the stock 
to steady it, he pulls over the handle with his right so 
as to bring the barrel and all the moving mechanism into 
the backward position. He then releases the handle, and 
the recoil spring comes into action and drives the breech 
forward, when the controlling gear brings the front end 
of the breech-block into its downward position, admits 
the first cartridge into the breech and pushes it forward 
by the cartridge-feeder into the barrel chamber. The 
breech-block then rises to its central position at the back 
of the cartridge, and the gun is ready for firing. 

351 



MODERN MECHANISM 

If automatic firing is required, the gunner sets the 
swivel at the back of the trigger in the right position, 
sights the object at which he has to fire, and pulls the 
trigger, thereby exploding the first cartridge. The recoil 
then drives back the barrel and the breech. The breech- 
block is moved into its highest position, making room 
for the ejection of the empty cartridge-case, which is 
then ejected by the extractor. At the end of the recoil 
the block falls into its lowest position, the cartridge- 
feeder having then arrived at the back of the breech- 
block. The recoil-spring now drives the breech forward, 
admits the new cartridge on to the breech-block and 
drives it forward by the feeder into the chamber. The 
breech-block rises to its position behind the cartridge 
and is locked in that position. The percussion arm is 
then released automatically, strikes the hammer, and 
fires the second cartridge, the cycle of operations repeat- 
ing itself till the last cartridge but one has been fired, 
when the magazine is charged and the cycle of operations 
is again renewed and continued till the second set of 
cartridges has been fired. The operations follow one 
another with such rapidity that the twenty-five cartridges 
contained in the magazine can be fired in less than two 
seconds. At the same time, the rate of firing remains 
under the control of the gunner, who can interrupt it 
at any moment by simply releasing the trigger. He can 
also alter his aim at any time and keep it directed on a 
moving object and fire at any suitable moment. 

In service it is not intended that every man should be 
armed with a Rexer, but only 8 to 5 per cent., con- 
stituting a separate detachment which w^ould act in- 

352 



AN AUTOMATIC RIFLE 

dependently of the artillery and other machine-guns. 
The latter would, as at present, cover the infantry's 
advance up to within some 500 . yards of the enemy, 
but at this point would have to cease firing for fear 
of hitting their own men. This period, when the 
artillery can neither shoot over the heads of their 
infantry, nor bring up the guns for fear of losing the 
teams, affords the golden opportunity for the Rexer, 
which is advanced with the firing line. If the fire of 
the detachment were concentrated on a part of the 
enemyls line, that portion would be unable to reply 
while the attacking force rushed up to close quarters. 
One hundred men armed with Rexers would be as 
valuable as several hundred carrying the ordinary service 
weapon, while they would be much more easily disposed, 
advanced, or withdrawn. 

A squadron of cavalry would be accompanied by three 
troopers armed with Rexers and by one leading a pack- 
horse laden with extra magazines. Each gunner would 
have on his horse 400 cartridges, and the pack-horse 
2,400 rounds, distributed in leather cases over a specially 
designed saddle. When a squadron, not provided with 
machine-guns, has to open a heavy fire, a considerable 
proportion must remain behind the firing line to hold 
the horses of the firing party. When, on the other 
hand, Rexers are present, only a few men would dis- 
mount, leaving the main body ready to charge at the 
opportune moment ; and, should the attack fail, they 
could cover the retreat. 

A use will also be found for the Rexer in fortresses and 
on war vessels; in fact, everywhere where the machine-gun 
can take a part. 

353 



MODERN MECHANISM 

After exhaustive trials, the Danish Government has 
adopted this weapon for both army and navy ; and it 
doubtless will presently be included in the armament 
of other governments. There are signs that the most 
deadly arm of the future will be the automatic rifle. 
Perhaps a pattern even lighter than the Rexer may 
appear. If every unit of a large force could fire 300 
rounds a minute, and ammunition were plentiful, we 
could hardly imagine an assault in which the attacking 
party would not be wiped out, even if similarly armed ; 
for with the perfection of firearms the man behind cover 
gets an ever-increasing advantage over his adversary 
advancing across the open. 

A BALL-BEARING RIFLE 

Rapidity of fire is only one of the desirable features in 
a firearm. Its range — or perhaps we had better say its 
muzzle velocity — is of almost equal importance. The 
greater this is, the flatter is the trajectory or curve described 
by the bullet, and the more extended the " point blank '' 
range and the " danger zone." 

Take the case of two rifles capable of flinging a bullet 
one mile and two miles respectively. Riflemen seldom 
fire at objects further off* than, say, 1,200 yards; so that 
you might think that, given correct sighting in the 
weapon and a positive knowledge of the range, both rifles 
would have equal chances of making a hit. 

This is not the fact, however, for the more powerful 
rifle sends its bullet on a course much more nearly parallel 
to the ground than does the other. Therefore an object 
six feet high would evidently run greater risks of being 

354 



A BALL-BEARING RIFLE 

hit somewhere by the two-mile rifle than by the one-mile. 
Thus, if at 1,200 yards the bullet had fallen to within 
six feet of the ground, it might not actually strike earth 
till it had travelled 1,400 yards; whereas with a lesser 
velocity and higher curve, the point of impact might be 
only fifty yards behind. Evidently a six-foot man would 
be in danger anywhere in a belt 200 yards broad were the 
high-velocity rifle in operation, though the danger zone 
with the other weapon would be contracted to fifty yards. 

At close quarters a flat trajectory is even more valuable, 
since it diminishes the need for altering the sights. If a 
rifle's point-blank range is up to 600 yards, you can fire at 
a man'*s head anywhere within that distance with a good 
chance of hitting him. The farther he is away, the 
lower he will be hit. A high trajectory would necessitate 
an alteration of the sights for every fifty yards beyond, 
say, two hundred. 

The velocity of a projectile is increased — (1) by 
increasing the weight of the driving charge ; (2) by 
decreasing the friction between the barrel and the pro- 
jectile. 

An American inventor, Mr. Orlan C. Cullen, has 
adopted a means already well tried in mechanical en- 
gineering to decrease friction. 

He has produced a rifle, the barrel of which has in its 
walls eight spiral grooves of almost circular section, a 
small arc of the circle being cut away so as to put the 
groove in continuous communication with the bore of the 
barrel. These grooves are filled with steel balls, one- 
tenth of an inch in diameter, which are a good fit, and on 
the slot side of the groove project a very tiny distance 

355 



MODERN MECHANISM 

into the barrel. The bullet — of hard steel — as it is 
driven through the barrel does not come into contact 
with the walls, but runs over the balls, which grip it with 
sufficient force to give it a spinning motion. The in- 
ventor claims that there is no appreciable escape of gas 
round the bullet, as the space between it and the barrel is 
so minute. 

The ball races, or grooves, extend back to the powder 
chamber and forward to the muzzle. Their twist ceases a 
short distance from the muzzle to permit the insertion of 
recoil cushions, which break the forces of the balls as they 
are dragged forward by the bullet. 

Mr. CuUen holds that a rifle built on this principle 
gives 40 per cent, greater velocity than one with fixed 
rifling — to be exact, has a point-blank range of 650 yards 
as compared with 480 yards of the Lee-Metford, and will 
penetrate 116 planks 1 inch thick each. 

The absence of friction brings absence of heat, which in 
the case of machine-guns has always proved a difficulty. 
It also minimises the recoil, and reduces the weight of 
mountings for large guns. 

Whether these advantages sufficiently outweigh the dis- 
advantages of complication and cleaning difficulties to 
render the weapon acceptable to military authorities 
remains to be seen. We can only say that, if the ball 
bearing proves as valuable in ballistics as it has in 
machinery, then its adoption for firearms can be only a 
matter of time. 



PLYMOUTH : W. BRENDON AND SON, LTD., PRINTm4S. 



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